Campaigners slam consultation that could see high school students required to wear face coverings

NICOLA Sturgeon has revealed that staff and pupils in high schools may soon have to wear face coverings when moving between classrooms. The First Minister announced yesterday that Education Secretary John Swinney was in the “final stages” of consulting with teaching unions and councils on the issue and an official announcement would be given later this week. It could mean high school pupils wearing face coverings when in busy corridors – but crucially not in the classroom. Advice for primary schools is not expected to change. Sturgeon said she was acting in response to new guidance from the World Health Organisation. The use of face coverings in schools is currently voluntary, although some schools have started advising staff and pupils to wear them to help combat Covid-19. But one children’s campaign group has already spoken out against the move. Us for Them Scotland said any move to make coverings mandatory for children would cause more harm than good. The group claimed there was

BY CHRIS MCCALL chris.mccall@reachplc.com

“barely any scientific evidence” showing the benefits of mask-wearing among youngsters and the UK’s chief medical officer said at the weekend young people were highly unlikely to be affected by the disease.

Jo Bisset, organiser for Us for Them Scotland, said: “Everyone appreciates the health and safety of pupils and teachers has to be a priority.

“But forcing children to wear masks when there’s little, if any, scientific evidence to support such a move could be damaging. It could have an extremely negative impact on pupils with autism, hearing impairments and conditions such as asthma.

“We also have to consider those children from unstable households who simply won’t be sent to school with any mask, let alone one that is safe and effective.

“Parents want to get their children back to school and for that experience to be as normal as it possibly can be.

“Forced wearing of masks in the classroom, or when moving about the building, would not achieve any sense of normality for children who’ve endured quite enough in recent months.

It follows an Edinburgh secondary school making youngsters wear masks.