“I don’t feel safe at school”: VSB students reflect on the first week back in classrooms
ERIKA CHUNG, THE GRIFFINS’ NEST
UPDATED 6:50 PM, JAN. 16, 2022 TO ADD CONTEXT REGARDING SEMESTERS.
After five days back in schools, Vancouver students and parents remain concerned about the realities of returning to classrooms.
The Griffins' Nest asked secondary students from across the District to share their back to school experiences, and 44 responded. Their message was clear: despite the "enhanced measures" implemented over an extended Winter Break, students still don't feel safe. Only two said they felt otherwise.
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"I do not feel safe at school. Many students and teachers don’t follow simple guidelines such as staying on one side of the hallway or keep masks on," wrote one student. "Many of the classrooms are small and don’t allow much social distancing...I just feel that the large amount of people and lack of responsibility creates a huge risk for students."
Virtually every student wrote that mask compliance was a significant issue and major point of concern.
Many shared that they noticed minimal, if any, changes to the school environment after returning from Winter Break. Multiple students mentioned the need to enforce existing safety measures, with one stating that they feel “right now [the existing rules] feel like [they’re] just for show.”
The current COVID situation has worsened the learning experience for a majority of student respondents, adding education to their set of concerns. Pointing to inconsistencies between courses, one student wrote that “while some teachers have lessened the workload, others are cramming the same content in less time which is stressful.”
With Semester 1 scheduled to end on January 30, the Winter Break extension cost Vancouver secondary students and teachers one of the four remaining weeks in the term. Course planning has since been complicated by that loss.
Others noted their concerns for their safety were so extreme that they served as a significant distraction while trying to learn. One student wrote they were “too focused on staying safe to focus on class work.” while another writing they are “not enjoying or learning to my full potential like [they] used to.”
While many called for a temporary pivot to online learning, experts, parents, and the students themselves have said that it isn’t preferable and a lesser quality of education.
The lack of an alternative has complicated learning. Many students felt that they had to choose between risking their safety to attend school or risk missing out on their education to say home. “I’m worried that if I get sick, I’ll miss a big chunk of crucial learning and fall behind,” wrote one student.
These concerns were echoed by Shaun Kalley, a former District Parents Advisory Council (DPAC) Chair. “Parents are being asked to choose one of two bad options. Either they're sending their kids back to school and are just waiting for COVID to be brought home, or they've kept their kids home and are worried about them keeping up academically,” Kalley wrote on Twitter.
“Learning in person is obviously better, but not in [these] conditions,” concluded one student.
Despite students' mounting concerns around safety, no functional closures in the District were called this week, and public health officials have continuously reiterated for months that schools are safe. But the disconnect between students and authorities is cause for concern.
The Nest showed the Vancouver School Board two quotes from students, and asked for their reaction as well as what they would say to those feeling unsafe attending school. In reply, Communications Manager Jiana Ling said the Board was too busy to comment, writing they were "prioritizing student health and safety first," and advised The Nest to try again next week.
DPAC hosted a special general meeting to answer parents’ questions this past Monday, with over 180 people in attendance, including three VSB trustees.
Trustees were asked to observe, rather than to answer questions or address concerns.
Throughout the meeting, parents were incredibly worried about the safety plans put in place by the district. Many shared their decisions to keep their children home, citing uncertainty around the rate of transmission in a school, especially with the lack of transparency by the VSB with case numbers.
By the end of the two hour long meeting, very few concerns were settled, and many parents left with only more unease.
In an email from Gord Lau, current DPAC Chair, he shared additional safety measures that some parents have asked for. These include N95s for staff and students, transparency with school exposures, and vaccine mandates for staff.
On Wednesday, the Delta School District announced that all educators must disclose their vaccination status, giving unvaccinated staff the choice to either get vaccinated, undergo regular testing, or take an unpaid leave of absence. This follows the BC Teachers Federation’s (BCTF) push for vaccine mandates, with the BCTF President Teri Mooring stating that it is a welcome step, and hopes for more districts to follow suit.
While the district has not made any commitments to provide N95 equivalent masks for teachers or students, VitaCore Industries, a BC mask manufacturer, has donated 100,000 N95s to the BCTF as of last Thursday.
The DPAC also believes that “parents would be supportive of structured and synchronous online learning,” as opposed to the asynchronous model from last year’s quarter system. However, DPAC itself does not support the move at this time.
Parents and DPAC said that more robust exposure notification is needed in province's plan to inform families of cases.
Education Minister Jennifer Whiteside announced last week that because of the Omicron variant's rapid transmission, individual case notifications are no longer feasible. Instead, COVID-19 outbreaks will be reported based on drops in student attendance.
While every school is different, Whiteside said that a general absentee rate of around 10 per cent could trigger an exposure communication to families.
On the first day back, the Vancouver Sun asked several metro-area school districts, Surrey, Burnaby, and Vancouver, about their attendance rates. None released concrete numbers.