We're repeatedly told that schools have to stay open because that's important for students' mental health but whose mental health is being prioritized by Minister Whiteside? 🧵 1/? #bcpoli#bced
2/?
Certainly not the student who's terrified that their maskless peers are sitting right next to them in a windowless classroom in a school with inadequate ventilation.
3/?
Nor is it the Grade 6 student who texts their mom in the middle of the day to fetch them from school because they're worried about all the maskless students sitting around them in class. They are terrified of taking the variant home to their 40 year old parents.
4/?
Definitely not the Grade 12 students who has to be in isolation for 2 weeks during an already too short quarter in a graduation requirement course that they already find difficult.
5/?
And I can't express the anguish of students who had fragile mental health pre-pandemic and are now just desperately trying to get through these last 2 months without a relapse into depression.
6/?
And what about the elementary student who collapses into tears when they realize that they were the first to bring the variant into their classroom that spread so quickly and shut down their school?
7/?
Whose mental health is being prioritized by keeping schools open without any remote learning options?
Contrary to what @JM_Whiteside said, there are NO remote learning options in many school districts.
8/?
In April 2020 schools were open for the children of health care workers & they also provided meal programs for students. Laptops were provided to students who needed them. Counsellors kept in contact with students. Teachers adapted their curriculum to the circumstances.
9/?
Something is being prioritized now in April 2021 by keeping schools open when daily case counts hover above 1000.
It's certainly not the mental health of students. #bcpoli#bced#bctf#Stage3Now
10?/ The survey sent out last summer upon which the 'mental health important' stance is based was hugely problematic. It was in English only, reached a fraction of parents & was sent at a time when the concept of a lockdown was new. Of course students missed their friends!
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🧵 Teachers in #bced, in the absence of adequate protections from the @bcndp gov't, let's crowdsource best ideas to keep safe when there's no mask mandate.
1. Wear an N95 mask or equivalent that fits tightly around your face or if you don't have these, double mask.
2. Follow the advice of Dr. Fauci and the mandatory rule of the Peel School District: wear goggles or a face shield. The virus is airborne. You need to keep it out of your eyes. #bcpoli
3. If you are lucky enough to have windows that open, keep them wide open. The virus is airborne. Don't give it opportunities to accumulate in your classroom.
If you're not, for the sake of survival, get a HEPA filter air purifier for your classroom. #bcpoli
Being calm & kind will support mental health but it's truth that will keep us safe.
To that end, a few question suggestions for @richardzussman:
What data, exactly, shows that there is low/no transmission in #bced schools & that students don't transmit the virus? 1/? #bcpoli
2/?
Why did the Minister of Public Safety, and not the Public Health Officer, mandate masks in all indoor public spaces?
" As such, a vaccine alone, no matter how effective, will not tip the balance toward health because COVID-19 is not a disease; it is a symptom of an exhausted planet. " theglobeandmail.com/opinion/articl…
Schools are being kept open not because of the need for educating students, their primary function, but because #bced performs a social safety net function in the provision of food, & the support of mental health in children. 1/?
2/? Schools perform these functions despite the fact that there is a Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, a Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, and a Ministry of Child and Family Development in BC.
3/? The ‘downsides’ that Dr Henry talks about to closing schools is not related to a loss of learning but to the loss of food and mental health support for children in one of the richest provinces in Canada. A province where 1 in 5 children lives in poverty.
What would schools in BC be like if the mandate letter for the next Minister of Education included all 21 recommendations for Healthy and Resilient Schools? Why not ensure we are more prepared when the next pandemic arrives? #bced#bcpoli#MandateTheRecommendations 1/21
2/21
Recommendation 1
That the Ministry of Education provide stable, predictable, and adequate funding to enable school districts to fulfill their responsibility to deliver quality public education to all students in British Columbia. #bced#bcpoli#HealthyAndResilientSchools
3/21
Recommendation 2
That the Ministry of Education terminate the consideration of a prevalence-based model for special education funding and align special education funding with special education needs. #bced#bcpoli#HealthyAndResilientSchools