Families should be provided with classroom health and safety audit

Families should be provided with classroom health and safety audit

The President of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union (NSTU) says all parents should be provided with a detailed health and safety audit of their children’s classrooms prior to school resuming on September 8th.

Paul Wozney says parents and teachers have deep concerns about the government’s ability to stop the spread of COVID-19 in schools and it’s only fair they are given specific details about the conditions children will be experiencing in two weeks’ time.

The health audit would provide the following specifics: the number of children in the class, the square footage of the class, the amount of physical distance between students, the type of ventilation in the classroom and the number of proper hand washing stations (running water and soap) in the classroom.

“A safe return to school this September means smaller class sizes, two meters of physical distance between everyone, proper ventilation, non-medical masks for all who can safely wear one, and the ability to properly wash hands on a regular basis,” says Wozney. “Parents deserve to know in advance if the appropriate measures are in place to keep their children safe when they return to school. This is going to require more than open windows and sanitizer.”

In the past two weeks 2,000 Nova Scotians have emailed their concerns to their MLA at www.actforeducation.ca. A petition started by a concerned parents group (Parents for Public Education) calling for a “better back-to-school plan” received 5,000 signatures in less than 48 hours.