Ministry of Education announced masking will remain optional in schools in the fall

BY PAUL JUNOR

As Ontario students prepare to return to school after their summer break, the Ontario Ministry of Education announced that masks would not be mandatory.

The Ministry of Education revealed that masks would be optional in public schools across Ontario in the fall. The email reads, “The government will continue to provide free high-quality masks for students and N95s for staff if they choose to use them, all of which remains unchanged from the 2021-22 school year. School boards will continue to have access to rapid antigen tests to be used in accordance with provincial testing guidance.”

In order to come up with the health and safety plan, the Ministry of Education consulted with diverse medical experts, which includes the Children’s Health Coalition and medical officers of health across Ontario.

There have been concerns expressed by some parents and medical officials regarding the optional masking in schools. Dr. Raywat Deonandran, epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Toronto is convinced that the fall is not the time to get rid of mandatory masking even though he believes it will eventually be phased out. He states, “We are in the middle of a health-care crisis in Ontario and across the country. We have intensive care units that are overstressed and dropping like flies. We have a nursing shortage. We have ERs that are closing regularly.”

He is concerned that schools could potentially be a source for the rapid transmission of the virus. He notes, “The children, if they get sick, will pass it on to other people because as has been shown schools are indeed a pandemic accelerator. There’s no debate about that anymore. Early on in the pandemic, there was an assumption that kids did not get sick. Not true.”

Three of Ottawa’s four school boards plan to abide by the provincial guidance with respect to masking. They include; the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB), the Ottawa Catholic School Board and the Conseil des ecoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario (CEPEO).

Robin Pilkey (Trustee for TDSB) was not caught by surprise by the Ministry’s announcement. She states, “There is actually no difference between when people left in June, to what’s going to happen in September.”

Karen Littlewood,President of OSSTF expressed concerns about measures taken to ensure safety in Ontario schools. She states, “We need to make sure that people are informed and that they all have the protection that they need.”