B.C. teachers renew call for mask mandate for K to Grade 3 students

Posted September 28, 2021 1:42 pm.

Last Updated September 28, 2021 1:43 pm.

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Teachers around Metro Vancouver are pushing for their districts to follow Vancouver’s lead and mandate masks for younger grades.

On Monday, the Vancouver School Board passed a motion to mandate masks for kindergarten to Grade 3. The VSB is the first district in B.C. to go beyond the province’s guidelines.

Liz Baverstock, president of the Richmond Teachers’ Association, says her organization is one of a number across the province that want to see mandates extended to younger grades.

“Always our perspective was, let’s start with mask mandates for K to 12. Especially because it’s the youngest students who are not vaccinated at this time,” she said. “So why not put in the prevention measures at the beginning of the year? You can always take them away through the year as we see changes in terms of pandemic numbers, or if we see vaccination for younger students.”

Unlike last year, Baverstock explains masks for all grades are especially important now since class sizes are not as small as they were in 2020 and the Delta variant is only spreading faster.

Baverstock assures parents they do not need to be worried about unproven claims that masks will impact language development.

While seeing full facial expressions is important, Baverstock argues, “what we need to do is keep schools safe, keep schools open, and we want to keep kids in school. We don’t want to break the confidence in the system and see parents start to move their children out of schools.”

She adds implementing a mask mandate for K to Grade 3 will also help students’, teachers’, and parents’ anxiety with in-person learning.

Burnaby, Surrey teachers also want expanded mask mandate

Burnaby Teachers’ Association president Daniel Tétrault agrees with Baverstock, adding younger grades have been capable of wearing the masks without them affecting their learning.

“We already have a strong culture of mask wearing. This would just increase that culture of mask wearing and our teachers are very capable of working with our students,” he said.

Matt Westphal, with the Surrey Teacher Association echoes the same perspective.

“One group of people I’ve not heard expressing concern is the people who actually work with students that age. They assure me that their students are capable of wearing masks all day, sometimes with some help, and that it doesn’t compromise their learning. And above all, it’s more important that they stay safe,” he said.

I've spoken with Surrey, Burnaby & Richmond teacher associations. They want their districts to bring in Vancouver School Board's K-3 mask mandate.

Surrey Board of Education tells me mask mandate will be discussed an afternoon meeting. More @NEWS1130

Cases on rise among BC kids https://t.co/0LZsSFNQEe

— Martin MacMahon (@martinmacmahon) September 28, 2021

Tétrault and Westphal say they are surprised the mandate has not been extended, adding proactive decisions need to be made by the province.

“We know that masks are an important measure in preventing the transmission of COVID and they’re also one of the easiest measures to implement. It’s far easier to require masks than to restructure classes to be smaller and have more distancing. So we never did understand why masks were not required for kindergarten to Grade 3,” Westphal says.

Westphal says he’s partially concerned schools in Surrey were heavily impacted by the virus in the last school year.

“I would say a lot of people are wondering when we’re gonna start to see serious outbreaks in schools,” Westphal said. “We’ve seen they’ve had schools shut down in Chilliwack and Maple Ridge and clusters happening in Victoria, North Vancouver, Abbotsford. So they’re wondering if it’s just a matter of time before Surrey does.”

Last month, the province required all students in grades 4 to 12, as well as all staff and visitors to wear face coverings in indoor areas. Masks can be removed when kids are eating or drinking.

People who can’t wear a mask for health or behavioural reasons, or aren’t able to put on or take off a mask without help, are exempt from the mask mandate. The province also says staff working with someone with a disability or diverse ability who needs to see visual cues, facial expressions or lip-read are also exempt.

Laurie Larsen, chair of the Surrey Board of Education, (SBE) visits a number of schools in the region and says she’s already noticed children in Kindergarten to Grade 3 are wearing masks when they don’t have to.

“I have yet to see one child at two schools that I’ve been at, one child in the whole entire school, not wearing a mask, mandated or otherwise,” Larsen said. “So I think it is something that we could cover very easily and for the children that can’t wear masks and other safety precautions need to be in place.”

Larsen says masks will be discussed at a SBE meeting Tuesday afternoon.

“Certainly, there are parents themselves who do not feel that masking is appropriate. So, if the mandate comes down, or we decide to mandate it by a motion, then those individual cases will be looked at for the reasons why and to see what can be done,” she said. “So there’s always consideration for that, because there’s always children or parents that cannot wear masks for medical reasons, and we need to deal with that on an individual basis.”

Larsen adds she’s more concerned about a faster, transparent notification process about COVID-19 exposures in schools.

“That seems to be where a hole is right now,” she said. “And we need to get that fixed and fixed immediately so that parents are aware when there is a monitoring or an isolation issue at their school and a quicker notification would be better because the sooner a staff person or a child is removed from the school, if they need to be, the better it is for all of them.”

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