Teachers’ union concerned about COVID exposure in schools

Paul Wozney questions the physical and emotional safety of schools in the province

HALIFAXtoday\ Chris Stoodley

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The Nova Scotia Teachers Union is concerned about the physical and emotional safety of schools in the province as community spread of COVID-19 rises.

“Are schools safe? In terms of the school plan that we have right now, really the only thing that we have as a layer of safety in schools is mandatory masking — and we’re glad to have that,” union president Paul Wozney said. “We’re glad to see government and Public Health — twice — extend mandatory masking in the interest of student and staff safety.”

But last week, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang said extreme measures aren’t yet necessary in the province’s schools.

Still, Wozney told NEWS 95.7 that safety measures that were in place last school year, such as bubbling, cohorts and daily cleaning, aren’t in place this year, meaning it’s only a matter of time until things get out of hand.

Moreover, he said nothing has been done to review ventilation systems in schools between last year and this year.

In August, Newfoundland and Labrador issued a tender to install 4,000 portable air-purification systems for the province’s classrooms, a project that’s expected to cost millions of dollars.

“That’s not a step we’ve taken here; it’s not cost-prohibitive to do so, but neither the former government or the current government have decided to invest that money,” he said. “All things considered, we have less protections in place for students this year than we did last year, facing a more potent virus that’s more transmissible and more harmful to kids when they get it.

“The fact is, we now have known community spread in multiple schools in metro.”

While there isn’t community spread in every Nova Scotia school, Wozney said he wonders what Public Health will do when community spread gets really bad like it already has in some schools.

On Friday, Public Health announced that Duc d’Anville Elementary School in Clayton Park was closing due to possible COVID-19 spread in the school. It’s just one school in the province that has seen multiple risks of COVID-19 exposures.

“Dr. Strang refuses to tell the public how they’re going to handle community spread; all he’s saying is, ‘We’re experts, we’ll handle it on a case-by-case basis and we’ll tell the people who need to know what they need to know,'” Wozney said. “Clearly, parents in the schools that are affected are not being communicated with effectively because they’re keeping their kids home. They don’t know what’s happening, they don’t know how at risk their kids are and it’s not clear how we’re handling community spread in schools.

“Safety is both physical and it’s emotional.”

Wozney said there are some Nova Scotia parents who are afraid to send their children to school amidst the rise in COVID-19 cases in the province.

“The teacher’s union has always argued that in-person learning that’s safe and sustainable should be the common goal of everybody during the pandemic,” he said. “Whether or not we have in-person learning that’s safe and sustainable is the question of the hour.”