Keep schools shut at least until fall Don’t turn classes into daycares Swing and a miss for the Liberals?
Re: “Legault tries to zero in on moving target of schools” (Allison Hanes, April 23)
The bloom is off the rose for Premier François Legault.
As if his handling of the seniors’ homes crisis were not enough, now he is suggesting that when schools reopen, attendance will not be mandatory. What is the point of that?
Many justifiably concerned parents, already sensing that the limited educational opportunities presented by this scheme are far outweighed by the risk to their children and by extension to themselves, will keep their children at home, and the schools will essentially be no more than daycare centres.
I can appreciate that the premier may want parents to have somewhere to place their children as they gradually go back to their offices and places of business, but he is asking vulnerable teachers in particular to endanger their health in order to function as babysitters.
Let us keep the schools closed until they can again safely serve the purpose for which they are intended.
Ian B. Copnick, Côte-st-luc
Thank you to Premier François Legault and public health director Horacio Arruda for not reopening schools on May 4, as had been suggested.
Anyone who has ever had children in school knows that illnesses travel like wildfire. Children bring them home to share with their families, no matter how much we try to teach handwashing and distancing.
According to Quebec government statistics, around 40 per cent of COVID-19 cases are among those 20 to 49 years old — the age of parents with young children.
When the schools reopen, there is a risk the numbers will skyrocket.
Then we will have big problems: Who will take care of children whose parents are hospitalized? Can our social structure provide care for an army of children carrying the virus? Will we call on grandparents, those at greatest risk of mortality?
I recognize that opening schools will allow some parents to return to much-needed work.
However, the benefits will wear off when many of these parents get sick.
It’s time we recognize that parenting is an essential service.
The reopening of schools should be put off until September at least, and other alternatives should be considered.
Rebecca Tittler, Montreal
Re: “Job well done on federal front” (Letters, April 22)
Reader Hans Stoger offers a number of examples of the federal government’s “exemplary” response to the COVID -19 crisis, including “self-quarantine measures for returning travellers.”
However, it should be remembered that many people were disembarking from planes without any screening, and that Mayor Valérie Plante took it upon herself to send public health officials and police to Trudeau airport.
I would also remind the writer that the conclusion of his letter — “Hope springs eternal” — is a line quoted in Ernest Thayer’s poem Casey at the Bat. We know how that ended.
Charles Mackay, St-eustache
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