My recent column about my heart breaking for families and teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic – especially those at my former high school, Burnaby North Secondary School – garnered quite a few comments.
You can read it here, but I wrote about how BNSS has had more notices sent to families than any other local school. Since writing the column, there’s been a 10th notice sent to parents.
My point was how helpless I felt about parents, students, teachers and staff going through all of this.
Many parents have written back to say how upset they are.
And then came an email from a BNSS teacher who disagreed with me and anyone else who felt upset about the situation.
This teacher disagreed with my use of the word “hammered” and said that out of 1,600 students, there was only a 0.5% infection rate.
“I’d call that a remarkable success rate,” the teacher said. “Far better than I expected to be honest. I expected schools to be closed with pandemic-level outbreaks by October. To almost reach Christmas in the single digits is a roaring endorsement of the decision to reopen schools.”
Well, hey, glad you are so happy with the situation. If someone can feel good their place of work then I am happy for them.
To be clear, I wasn’t criticizing the decision to reopen schools. I get why they were opened in September.
But I find this kind of rose-coloured thinking quite dismissive of what parents are going through emotionally.
This teacher’s logic is that because the school hasn’t been shut already due to an outbreak then things are fantastic. For the record, some other schools have been closed completely, the latest one in Surrey. Is BNSS just lucky? Who knows?
BNSS parent Sue Robins tweeted out after the seventh exposure notice that she is happy her son is sitting out the pandemic at home.
“I’m thankful he’s safe at home. Believe it or not, not all kids are safer at school than at home, DBH,” tweeted Robins.
Another BNSS parent wrote to me saying he “dreads opening up my email every night” because of all the notices.
This teacher’s sunny ways goes against what BC Teachers’ Federation says as far as how things are being handled. They want class sizes shrunk and mandatory masks to improve safety.
My overall point is how emotional it can be for people to receive these kinds of notices.
I received a letter from one teacher talking about what it’s like.
“Each time one is emailed to me, I feel sick inside,” wrote Sarah Wethered. “Has one of my colleagues been exposed? Are children sick? Are there immune-compromised people at home that could be in danger because of this? I worry about my members and the young people they teach. I worry about our community members – my neighbours, colleagues, and friends. I also worry that these letters often come with a considerable time lag, which means that the two-week isolation period may be at the tail end when the school community is notified of an exposure.”
That to me is the real toll that’s being taken.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
