Anti-vaccine protest outside Abbotsford school prompts mother’s concerns

ABBOTSFORD (NEWS 1130) – A mother in Abbotsford says she has serious concerns after she saw anti-vaccine protesters outside her son’s school on Thursday.

Tara Beguin says she and her husband were picking their son up from Abbotsford Senior Secondary when they saw the group posted up on either side of the street.

She tells NEWS 1130 her 16-year-old told her the protesters were talking to the students directly.

“He said, ‘Yeah, they were telling you, ‘Don’t be brainwashed, your parents aren’t telling you the truth, nobody needs to get the jab, don’t get the jab,’ all that, their normal rhetoric that they say to people, but they’re saying it to our kids. These aren’t their kids that they’re saying it to, necessarily. They were saying it to all the kids as they were walking by leaving the school property,” Beguin recalled.

Today outside Abbotsford Senior. Harassing students, as they came out. Was told they were telling them "don't get the jab. Your parents are wrong." Protesting at hospitals and schools is crossing the line. Police need to get involved. Leave our kids alone!!! #bced @AbbyPoliceDept pic.twitter.com/sd3eyUajsh

— BC School Covid Tracker (@BCschoolCovid) September 10, 2021

She decided to take a video of the protesters as she and her husband drove by, with the images showing protesters carrying and waving signs. The footage has been shared online, drawing much reaction from other parents about their concerns.

“This is sickening,” one person wrote.

“These protesters have no shame,” another said.

While Beguin believes people should have the right to protest, she notes there is a time and a place.

“I think it’s terrible,” she said of protesters choosing a school as their location and of them engaging directly with students. “It’s great that we can protest if we feel like we need to, but it shouldn’t be done in front of the school where our kids are coming out, and they … shouldn’t be talking to our kids.”

This protest came the same week students were returning to school from the summer break. It also follows large demonstrations in Vancouver and elsewhere in opposition to vaccine passports and other mandates.

Beguin says she and her husband — who both have underlying health conditions — as well as her son are all vaccinated against COVID-19.

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However, with her son back in school, she says he has concerns of his own.

“He’s worried that he’s going to bring [COVID] home to us even though everybody’s vaccinated. And we’ve said to him, ‘Look buddy, we’ve done what we can do to be safe, we have to live our lives now and just hope that the people around us are doing what they need to do as well,'” Beguin said.

While there were only a handful of people gathered outside of Abbotsford Senior Secondary Thursday, Beguin says concerns remain.

“It worries me that they’re talking to the kids like that because it’s going against what the kids are being taught at home. It’s like anything else — other people don’t need to involve themselves, and it makes me feel that my kid maybe isn’t safe coming in and out of the school because we’ve seen how these protests go,” she explained.

“I was just like, what is wrong with these people? If you’re going to protest, that’s fine, but just don’t do it in front of a school, you know what I mean? Just like they shouldn’t do it in front of the hospitals. Leave the kids out of it, they’re confused and anxious enough about it as it is.”

Beguin notes protesters were not set up outside the school on Friday.

While she’s not sure if anything could even be done, given the protesters were on public property and not on school grounds, she says she wishes demonstrators could be prevented from setting up where they are able to engage directly with students.

“If they want to stand on the other side of the street with their big poster board saying whatever, that’s fine. But don’t actually engage with other people’s kids. Those kids can’t vote. They’re stuck in the middle of this,” she explained. “Those kids had no choice but to walk around those people or walk through them.”

“Some of these kids had to literally walk out into the road to pass these protesters,” Beguin added.

NEWS 1130 has reached out to the Abbotsford School District and police for comment. Minister of Education Jennifer Whiteside was not available for comment on Saturday.