Local school boards on board with lifting of mask mandates for students

Posted on: Staff Writer

From edition: February 25 2022 Strathmore Times

By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter

Strathmore’s local school boards say they are on board with the province’s decision to drop mask mandates in schools and will follow the provincial health orders. Regarding the Minster of Education’s statement which prohibits school boards from introducing their own localized mask mandates, the sentiment is one of indifference, as neither local school board had intentions of introducing such measures. Students continue to have the option to wear their masks if they so choose.

John Watson Photo

As provincial COVID-19 restrictions begin to lift, Strathmore’s local school divisions continue to be committed to following the directions of the province.

Golden Hills School Division (GHSD) Superintendent of Schools, Bevan Daverne, said that students no longer wearing masks in school or on the bus is a shift, but not necessarily a dramatic one.

“That health order, up until just recently, was that students needed to wear their masks when they were moving around the school or moving around their classroom, but they didn’t need to wear their masks when they were working at their desks or when they were eating or were involved in physical ed,” said Daverne.

“In actuality, students were not wearing masks already for the majority of the school day … many classrooms were set up in such a way that students were working at their desks to allow more opportunities to take off their masks.”

Prior to the announcement, which was released on Feb. 8, and took effect on Feb. 14, kindergarten to grade three students already did not wear masks while in school. The larger shift for students is no longer being required to wear masks on school and transit busses.

According to Scott Morrison, superintendent of schools for the Christ the Redeemer Catholic School Division, reactions to the change have been similarly modest.

“I think both staff and students will appreciate the choice, but they also know that masks were not the only thing we were doing to help reduce the risk – the spread of COVID-19 or any respiratory illness,” said Morrison.

“This is a slow return to near normal for us. We’ve got lots of things in place and there’s no reason to stop keeping those things in place to keep safety as a priority.”

Alongside the announcement that mandates to wear masks would be lifted, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange stated in a release that individual school boards would not be permitted to introduce their own localized mask use mandates for students.

“School authorities cannot deny their students access to in person education due to their personal decision to wear or not wear a mask in schools,” wrote LaGrange.

Both divisions within Strathmore have stated they did not have any intention to potentially re-introduce any sort of mandates for students within their systems and are unfazed by the minister’s stance.

“None of us are medical professionals and our best guess as to what might be a good idea or not, that takes us into an area that is not our expertise,” said Daverne.

“If the minister (is) talking about changes that would not allow boards to go beyond the health order in practice … our board has not wanted to, so I’m sure our board would be comfortable with it based on past practice.”

“It didn’t concern us that the minister gave that direction because we’ve been following the minister’s direction and the chief medical officer of health’s direction since the beginning of the pandemic,” added Morrison.

“Our board wouldn’t have considered otherwise because we’ve been going that direction for two years.”

Students still have the option to continue wearing their masks on busses and within schools as they choose and for the time being, all staff continue to be required to wear masks.