Kids return to school
Some tears, laughter and a little COVID19-related uncertainty marked the first day back to class at Wiltse Elementary in Penticton. And it couldn’t come soon enough for Sean Cribb, one of approximately 553,000 public school students across B.C. who returned to class Thursday.
“I’m dying at home and stuff,” said Sean who was the first student to arrive at the school just after 8 a.m. in his bright-orange junior triathlon jersey and shorts, carrying a big, blue backpack and a bag of supplies.
“I’m not worried at all (about COVID-19). I think they’ve done a pretty good job. I’m more excited this morning than worried,” said Sean, who’s starting Grade 5.
“I just want to get back to school and play with my friends and study more. To me, personally, I feel like I’m a pretty good student. I don’t get in trouble so much and it’s just really nice here.”
His classmate Markus Messing agreed: “I’m not worried about coming back. The last six months have been kind of hard, the first few weeks (of the pandemic) I couldn’t really see my friends and so I’m looking forward to seeing them.”
His mother, Andrea, said she and her husband, who both work out of their home, didn’t
hesitate in sending Markus back to school.
Kids “need more than what we had in the spring. Markus misses his friends and his teachers, too. They do a lot of good stuff here,” said Andrea, “as long as everybody is healthy.”
Another parent, Brad Booth, said his daughters, Kera Ann, 7, and Emmalee, 4, are wellbriefed on life in the COVID-19 era.
“They’ve seen it on the news, the best of it, the worst of it, they understand that you get really sick, so they know to wash their hands and cough or sneeze into their arms,” said Booth, who works at the Hamlets, a Penticton long-term care facility.
“I’m not worried about them going back to school. I’m more worried about them starting and having to stop. But to get them back out seeing friends and socializing, that’s the main part of why I’m sending them back to school. Kids need interaction and they get depressed just like everybody else.”
Wiltse principal Travis Bond greeted kids on the outdoor playing field Thursday to help orchestrate classes, and noted the general consensus in the school community seems to be a positive one.
“With the mindset to be willing to learn on the fly a little bit,” added Bond, who is in his first year at the school, “but we have to be willing to adapt and change to the needs of the community.”
Among the measures in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 is the use of learning groups, which will range in size from 60 in elementary schools to 120 in secondary schools. Each group will keep to itself during breaks and classes.
Students and staff in middle and high schools will also have to wear masks when in high-traffic areas like hallways and buses.