Unmasking rules cause confusion, raise concerns for parents, students

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This article was published 22/09/2021 (943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lifting strict mask-wearing rules in schools at snack time is raising eyebrows and heart rates among parents who are worried about infectious variants of COVID-19 and the logic of protocols.

Winnipeg mother Janet Lewis has fielded plenty of fifth-grader queries about the paradox of pandemic precautions since her daughter returned to the classroom in Silver Heights this month.

“I tell her, when it comes down to questioning the rules, that we just have to be respectful and no matter where we are, we have to respect the rules, even if they don’t make sense — some people wear shoes in the house and some people don’t,” Lewis said.

At the same time, she said even she is confused about the mixed messaging around masks, which are removed to eat and become optional when pupils are breathing heavily in the gymnasium during phys-ed.

Splitting students up for lunch and utilizing outdoor spaces so adequate distancing can take place would be much more logical, Lewis said, adding she is disappointed her daughter’s class has increased in size from 19 students to 28 this year.

K-12 students are required to wear masks on buses and throughout the school day.

Mask breaks are allowed outdoors and when there is physical distancing of two metres for the purpose of eating and drinking. And provincial government policy allows for short, infrequent breaks inside.

School desks, however, do not have to be spaced out by two metres under current public-health orders and students do not have to wear a mask in an indoor public place when engaged in athletic activities.

“We bring (our son) home for lunch because we’re just not comfortable having him in a room with unmasked, eating and talking children for any period of time, let alone a half an hour,” said Rhonda Hinther, a mother in central Winnipeg and member of Safe September MB.

Hinther said via text that her Grade 5 student does his best to have snacks at school while wearing his FN95 mask. Yogurt tubes work best, she said, adding she’d be more comfortable if schools monitored carbon dioxide levels and installed HEPA filters.

Infection-control epidemiologist Colin Furness has no easy solution to address “the blind spot” that is mask removal in lunchrooms.

Even quality ventilation systems and frequent air exchange cannot guarantee zero transmission, said the assistant professor of information management at the University of Toronto.

“The one thing we can do to maximize school safety is to do regular, frequent screening of kids with rapid tests,” added Furness.

Earlier this week, Manitoba chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin indicated there are no plans to roll out rapid testing for students and reiterated existing measures in schools.

Roussin also announced that in order to limit learning disruptions, Manitoba will require asymptomatic close contacts self-monitor rather than quarantine. A contact’s immunization status and “consistent” mask-use — meaning face coverings are removed for short periods of time, such as snack breaks and when two metres of distancing is maintained — are now being taken into account by officials assessing exposures.

But the universal lunchtime unmasking is “terrifying,” said one rural teacher, who is also a mother of students who are too young to be immunized.

The educator, who spoke to the Free Press on the condition of anonymity, said schools were stretched for space before the pandemic and many have already repurposed music and art rooms to spread out students as far apart as possible.

“It’s one of those impossible conundrums,” she said.

 

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie