‘Scared for the children’; Hamilton school board wants mask mandate back as absences spike

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Published April 11, 2022 at 8:42 pm

Trustees are wondering what quality of education the the largest school board in Hamilton can provide without a mask requirement.

On Monday night, the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) held off on discussing a return to re-adding masks to COVID-19 safety protections in schools, which it did for two weeks longer than any of its counterparts in Southern Ontario. Public Health Ontario (PHO) recommended bringing back masks during a technical briefing last week, but that same recommendation has not been made by the ultimate authorities, including Hamilton Public Health Services (HPHS), the Ontario Ministry of Education (MOE), or the provincial Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore when he made his first media appearance in 25 days earlier on Monday.

The HWDSB passed a motion for Chair Dawn Danko and Education Director John Bryant to write to HPS and City of Hamilton medical officer of health Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, and the MOE and Education Minister Stephen Lecce. The HWDSB will be “requesting urgently” that a mask mandate return.

“The feedback we are getting is that everyone is tired,” Danko said. “There is a lot of work done where people are covering lots of classes.

“I know other boards have had to close classes, and that is a real possibility for us.”

While some school boards are resuming COVID-19 notifications, schools are only required to absences across the entire population of students and staff. That info is posted at ontario.ca the following day. Last Friday (April 8), at the end of HWDSB’s first masking-optional week, about 40 per cent of public schools in Hamilton reported absence rates of 19 per cent or higher. (That is from all four boards, not just HWDSB.) Mountview Jr. Public School on the west Mountain had a 34.2 absence rate, thie highest in the city.

On that same day, albeit late in the day, PHO released a paper about the risk assessment with the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron. It called for, “Optimizing layers of prevention in K-12 schools, including temporary re-implementation of masking requirements.”

Ward 12 Trustee Alex Johnstone stated Sunday on Twitter that she would motion to bring back mandatory masking. While Monday’s discussion went in another direction, she warned that HWDSB is facing an untenable situation.

“Under the Education Act, we have the job to be responsible stewards of local education, to make sure we can deliver education,” Johnstone said on Monday night. “From the ability to operationalize alone, we need to be looking at masking in order to keep our schools. Dr. Moore today said we are into the sixth wave and it likely won’t end till the end of May. I do not understand why we would not be taking those mitigations (such as masking). Right now it is very difficult to operationalize.

“To the end of May — that takes us almost to the end of the school year, which is what we are trying to protect.”

‘Duty to vulnerable students’

Moore did not address — nor was he asked on Monday — about ‘long COVID’ risks in children who are infected with the virus.

The PHO report mentions, on Page 1, “the number of children with severe disease is likely to increase. This may impact pediatric hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) capacity, and also lead to further disruption to in-person learning in Ontario.” On Page 11, also notes that the lack of PCR testing in Ontario means “there are gaps in surveillance data to inform timely public health action related to Ontario’s pediatric population,” meaning children.

Ward 3 Trustee Maria Felix Miller represents an area that includes Cathy Wever Public School, whose 31.4 absence rate on April 8 was second-highest in the city. Felix Miller said that while many parents initially wanted masks to be optional, the increase in infections has made many change their mind.

“We have a duty to vulnerable students,” Felix Miller said. “I know masking has a lot of emotions attached to it, but masking is the bare minimum we can add.

“I have had a stark increase in parents reaching out to me saying they’re scared for the children, they’re scared for the teachers who teach their children, and other educational workers,” she added. “I have had a parent say she’s pulled her children with special needs who are immunocompromised out of school.

“And that to me is unacceptable.”

Racialized, lower-income and immunocomprised populations are higher-risk groups, the PHO says.

‘It does feel quite confusing’

Danko told her colleagues that Hamilton’s MOH, Dr. Richardson, is “clearly recommending” that children and education workers continue to mask in areas where they are congregated in close quarters.

“She (Richardson) is not saying it’s mandatory, but very much recommended,” Danko said.

Earlier in the meeting, Johnstone asked board staff why Public Health Ontario would suggest there is a case for masking rules to come back, while the education ministry and public health unit would deem that unnecessary. She also pointed out that the Children Health’s Coalition and Ontario science advisory table have made similar calls.

The baord Staff said they had communicated with the province and HPHS, and PHO is not in that chain of command.

“They (PHO) do not have the latitude or the mandate to mandate anything for school settings,” HWDSB associate director Jill Dunlop said.

Superintendent of student achievement Laura Romano acknowledged that the messaging coming from the province might seem muddled.

“It does feel quite confusing in terms of messaging,” Romano said. “Our perspective is this direction is not any different what we have already known, that masking is an important layer, We have that in our own messaging that it is strongly recommended.”

Improved ventilation and air quality in schools is another layer of prevention. Associate director Stacey Zucker, replying to a question posed by Danko, said HWDSB has received 1,414 HEPA filters to install in its more than 90 schools.

“All of them would be in schools by the end of this week,” Zucker said,.

During the first week with optional masking in indoor public settings, Ontario had its first week-over-week increase in COVID-19 cases since last December. From March 20-26, there was a 26-per-cent increase over the previous seven days.

While Ontario has eased COVID-19 safety measures, three other provinces  have kept masking in schools. The protection remains in place in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island. All three provinces also have a higher percentage of fully vaccinated 5- to 11-year-old children than Ontario, and Hamilton.

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