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Demonstrators demand safer return to school plan

Teachers and parents wearing red and holding homemade signs gathered Aug. 12 to demand a safer school reopening plan. The demonstration took place outside Airdrie-East MLA Angela Pitt's office.
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Carley Toye was among those gathered outside MLA Angela Pitt's office Aug. 12 to protest against what shee sees as gaps in Alberta's return to school plan. Photo Submitted/For Airdrie City View.

Teachers and parents wearing red and holding homemade signs gathered Aug. 12 to demand a safer school reopening plan.

The demonstration took place outside Airdrie-East MLA Angela Pitt's office. According to Adam Quraishi, a teacher who helped organize the demonstration, approximately 60 people showed up.

"For kids to get back to school and for parents to get back to work and not be constantly going back and forth, we need better plans," Quraishi said. "We are demanding...that people sit at the table and they solve problems.”

According to Quraishi, a detailed letter was sent to Pitt explaining the reason for the protests and the concerns Airdrie teachers, parents and citizens have over the return to school.

“Our letter does say we expect a briefing on the list and it is numbered,” he said. “We are expecting direct answers to every single item on the list.”

Hiring more staff to reduce class sizes is among the protesters' goals, Quraishi said, especially for younger grades.

"In [kindergarten] to [grade] 3, they're not only still learning how to distance, how to be safe, how not to spread the virus," he said. "But also how to learn while sitting down...because if they're not sitting down more often, they'll be in each other's space."

More custodial staff is also needed, Quraishi added.

"Kindergarten kids touch a lot of stuff, and classes are split between morning and afternoon," he said. "So they go to class about 11:30 a.m., and then they switch over and the next class comes around 12:15 p.m. Not every school has a full time cleaning staff, and without that little bit of funding...some of those classes won't get enough [custodial] staff."

Quraishi said there is also not enough staff for children with special needs. Many children with special needs don't receive a diagnosis until grade 2, he said, and with the past school year ending abruptly, a plan to adequately support those students was not put in place.

"We need to make sure that those special needs and inclusion plans are there, and right now, there are no real plans for that," he said. "There aren't any substantial plans for substitute teachers either."

According to Quraishi, substitute teachers have no sick days, and it could be difficult to employ them if they're asked to fill in at a potentially high-risk environment.

Additionally, Quraishi said he was concerned about a lack of planning to address scenarios where a teacher contracts COVID-19, or where one child in a family gets sick and may transmit the virus to siblings.

"These are the big holes in the plan, they're not little ones," he said.

Pitt said she had read the letter the protesters sent and forwarded it to Minister of Education Adriana LaGrange. She added she was “surprised by the protest,” claiming she only received six emails outlining concerns with the plan.

However, Quraishi said he knows of approximately 20 people who wrote Pitt, though he said many of them received no reply.

As a parent with young kids returning to school, Pitt said she understands concerns with the current plan, but she added it was not made lightly and was approved by Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health.

"If there's an outbreak situation in any of the schools, there will be a team of health experts who will come in and help deal with those situations," she said.

Pitt said she does not believe reducing class size is a reasonable request.

"We simply don't have the space [and] we don't have the money," she said. "COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon, and we need to learn how to live with it."

However, Quraishi believes the current plan could lead to schools shutting down, which would have a greater impact on the economy.

"I wouldn't be surprised if another recession popped up," he said. "We're talking about the ability for kids and the economy to get back safely. That's not going to happen by bad planning."

Quraishi also took issue with language in a recent United Conservative Party (UCP) fundraising where Pitt stated students in Alberta are learning more about protesting than math and reading from "ideological activists parading as teachers."

Quraishi said comments like this can make it difficult to collaborate, and one of the demonstrators’ goals is to stop disparaging remarks like this on social media.

Pitt stood by her comments.

"I think that most teachers in the province are excellent and wonderful," Pitt said. "But there are some teachers that think it's their duty to turn our kids into ‘agents of change.’ That's not their role in the school system."

Carley Toye, a parent who attended the rally, said she was disappointed Pitt used such "divisive language to villanize others." Toye said she reached out to Pitt and requested an apology on Aug. 10, and is still waiting on a response.

Toye said she worries the government’s plan does not adequately address social distancing in the classroom.

"The Alberta government is recommending physical distancing as one of its top ways to prevent the spread of the virus," she said. "The rules that are expected to be followed to safely reopen the economy should be applied equally to our schools."

Toye said she trusts Rocky View Schools (RVS) and its staff with her children's safety for 182 days of the year, and while she believes they'll do their best with what they have, she fears it's not enough, and the government is failing to provide additional support.

"I can't imagine any price tag that would be too high to pay if it saved just one life," she said.

Kate F. Mackenzie, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @katefmack



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