Parents put in a situation that is unacceptable

Family safety or children’s education? We shouldn’t be forced to choose

For the loved ones of the CHSLD residents who died of COVID-19, the heartbreak has only been compounded by a sense that many of the deaths were preventable. We watched in horror as the death toll climbed. We felt helpless as the coronavirus ripped through understaffed and under-quipped long-term care residences with impunity. The government reacted by investing in seniors residences, calling in the army, training Quebecers on how to care for the elderly, all while paying them fair wages.

Hindsight is 20/20. Or at least it should be. But now, despite all we have learned from our losses during the pandemic, it seems that we may not have learned enough.

Five months into the pandemic that has turned our lives upside down, we are at another crossroads. Since March break, our children have been home, and now it’s time to decide, not whether we as a society should send our children back to school, but how.

By the time the government acted sufficiently on CHSLDS, it was too late. Thousands had already died. The cracks in the way we care for our elderly and the lack of allocation of funds for their care were apparent. We expected too much from a system that was insufficiently funded, and had been for a long time.

The education system is no different. Teachers have been saying this for years; their cries have been disregarded.

Now, we are expected to send our children into the care of educators who are, in many cases, anxiety-ridden and afraid for their own health and well-being.

Many parents are anxiety-ridden, too, lacking confidence in the limited safety measures and protocols that are to be in place. Compounding the issue is that the choice for Quebec parents is between sending children to school and withdrawing them entirely and becoming home-schoolers. There is no middle ground of online education.

Many have written to me about the fact that they have no choice but to send their children to school due to their work schedules. I respect that, and know it is a reality for many parents. As a parent, however, I am beyond frustrated that in the past five months, the government has not made adequate adjustments for students to switch to online learning. While other provinces have offered parents the option of choosing to educate their children online, we have not. Our government has obliged parents to send their children to school once it opens. While a lawsuit is being filed by constitutional lawyer Julius Grey, it is doubtful anything will come of it in time for schools opening up later this month.

Meanwhile, conditions in reopened schools will be challenging for any number of reasons. I know of at least one high school where lockers will be bolted shut to avoid having students congregate there. That will put an added physical strain on children who will already be wearing masks and adjusting to having many of their extracurricular activities altered or cancelled. I know that my kids’ schoolbags are bursting if they try to bring home all of their books at once. No locker access may also be fine and dandy for the first few weeks of school, but what happens when the weather changes, forcing them to wear boots and bulkier jackets?

We may not all agree on whether parents should send their kids to school. For various reasons, including whether children have family members with serious health conditions, some families will be more cautious than others. Certainly, more should be done to ensure that the schools are as safe as possible. But even then, families should still not be forced to make a choice between their family’s safety and their children’s educational success.

There is no middle ground of online education.