BCTF COVID concerns abound as teachers, students ready for return to school

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – B.C. teachers are demanding stronger COVID-19 measures, with most students set to return to school Tuesday.

The BC Teachers’ Federation is voicing extreme concern heading into the new school year, saying measures previously announced by the province don’t go far enough to protect everyone.

Union President Teri Mooring says teachers would have liked to see expanding mask protocols and mandatory vaccinations for everyone who is eligible before the beginning of classes.

“There are actually fewer safety measures in place in the coming school year than there was last year. No cohorts, no physical distancing, no daytime custodians, no exposure notifications, no limit to school visitors, no limit to school gatherings,” she explained Monday.

She notes the prevalence of the Delta variant across B.C., referring to is as “an unknown” since this mutation is not something we’ve had to deal with in months’ past in schools.

Having already been through an entire school year during the pandemic, Mooring says safety measures often came “quite late.”

“We were hoping that we would not have to start the school year this year with similar battles and unfortunately we are,” she told NEWS 1130 after a news conference Monday to address outstanding concerns.

“It seems like at the end of June, a decision was made that September would be near normal and nothing that’s happened this summer, including the increase in cases, including the experience from other jurisdictions, has really stopped that trajectory from continuing,” Mooring added.

Related video: Masks mandatory for B.C. teachers, staff, some students starting September

The province did announce last month that masks would be mandatory for all children in grades 4 and up, as well as all staff and teachers in K-12. However, Mooring says that doesn’t go quite far enough, noting children in grades 3 and below are not required to cover up.

“And there’s been no adequate rationale given for why not. We’re very frustrated. It just doesn’t make sense given the new reality with the Delta variant,” she said.

She and other teachers are also worried about poor ventilation, even if everyone eligible is fully immunized.

“Vaccines alone is not the answer to everything. We are concerned and we hope it doesn’t happen, but our concern, of course, is that the Delta variant will continue to circulate amongst the younger students who aren’t eligible for vaccinations and we want to prevent that,” Mooring explained.

Suffering mental health

While she notes teachers will be returning to school, they’re continuing to voice their concerns with the hopes that things will change before it’s too late.

“Teachers are going to do their best to keep everyone safe as they did last year … at a cost of mental and physical health,” she explained, adding the vast majority of teachers are vaccinated this year, a key difference from the last year.

However, she notes some teachers are opting to retire early or have quit altogether because their mental health is suffering, though updated numbers are not yet available.

The BCTF has been concerned about teacher morale for some time now, and believes adequate focus has not been put on the impact the pandemic has had on these individuals and other frontline workers.


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Mooring says the BCTF has been pushing for the province to ensure everyone in the school sector is trained on the use of a trauma-informed lens in teaching, adding dedicated time needs to be set aside for that to happen.

“Teachers tend to prioritize their students over their own health, and so that’s definitely a concern going into this school year, which is why it’s all the more disturbing that we’re having to fight for the mask mandate to be expanded and the other measures that should be in place that just aren’t,” she explained.

She also notes there’s growing concern over the province’s decision to no longer report on single exposure notifications at schools, which had been the case over the previous year.

“With no announcement about what’s going to replace them. How are we going to get meaningful and timely data about what’s happening in schools in the absence of those exposure notifications? These are questions that haven’t been answered yet and school starts tomorrow,” Mooring said.

The person who started the BC COVID School Tracker, which is dedicated to reporting and tracking virus notifications at schools in B.C., has also expressed deep concern with this move, also saying that people need more information, not less.

“What we’re hoping doesn’t happen is an absence of data next year,” Mooring said. “We’ve had historical data provided to us from the BCCDC, we had to rely on WorkSafe data to understand what’s happening with teachers in schools last year. The reluctance around data is really disconcerting.”

Hoping for changes

The BCTF wants to see less reactive measures at schools this year, saying it shouldn’t take increasing infection rates to bring about changes to measures.

“We know that health and safety guidelines are not set in stone, that we changed them many times over the last school year,” she told NEWS 1130. “We would much rather see preventative and protective measures in place at the very beginning of the school year when they’re easy to implement. As the school year progresses, it gets harder to implement those measures. I think families would be fairly upset if we were waiting until after we saw in terms of a kid’s exposure to COVID-19 to then put the safety measures in place.”

Mooring says teachers will continue to raise their concerns, adding she believes their voices need to be heard.

She notes many doctors are also calling for the same measures the BCTF wants to see brought in at schools, pointing to other jurisdictions that are already doing so.

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