Surrey teachers meeting with education minister as they call for policy changes
Posted December 16, 2020 9:32 pm.
SURREY (NEWS 1130) — On the heels of Surrey Teachers telling the public health officer they don’t feel safe in the classroom, they are getting a meeting with the province.
Teachers will have a virtual face-to-face meeting with B.C.’s education minister Wednesday but before that Jennifer Whiteside says she’s meeting with the provincial steering committee.
Whiteside says plans in place remain based on science but the teachers say their experience in schools should be considered as well.
“I can appreciate again the anxiety and the situations that teachers and other staff in our schools, particularly in the Fraser Healh authority and families, are feeling with respect of covid in communities,” Whiteside says.
She adds transmissions in schools continue to reflect what happens in various communities, which is why it’s “critical to slow the transmission of COVID in our communities.”
RELATED: Surrey teachers express COVID grievances, call for policy changes in classrooms
The teachers continue to ask for the province to mandate masks throughout schools like the public safety minister has done in public places.
And while Whiteside says some adjustments may need to be made — it doesn’t sound like mandatory masks are part of that.
“I’m not the solicitor general. I am the minister of education, and in that regard we work very closely of course with health and we take direction from and advice from our provincial health officials with respect to the safety plans that have been developed.”
In an open letter to Dr. Bonnie Henry, the Surrey Teachers Association is demanding a mask mandate and smaller class sizes.
