With Ontario’s mask mandates in schools set to lift when students return from March Break on March 21, local parent and award-winning Guelph physician Dr. Andrea Chittle is urging the Ontario government to keep masks in schools.
Chittle started an online petition on Sunday with the straightforward message of ‘mandatory masking in schools is a simple measure that prevents COVID-19 from spreading in classrooms.’
Last week the province announced on March 21 the mandatory making policies would be expiring in Ontario, including the masking policies implemented in the school systems.
“We should be acknowledging that schools are a different indoor setting than other indoor settings. Schools are where children go to do their essential work,” said Chittle. “We shouldn’t roll back the protection in schools, or treat schools as analogous to those other settings."
For every 1,000 signatures collected, the letter will be forwarded by email to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Minister of Education Stephen Lecce, Education Critic for the Official Opposition Marit Stiles and Liberal Critic for Education, Colleges and Universities Kathleen Wynne.
On Monday morning the letter had accumulated enough signatures to be sent eight times, with 8,700 recorded signatures by Monday at 10:00 a.m.
Launched on Sunday around 2:00 p.m., Chittle expects the letter to hit 10,000 signatures within the first 24 hours.
Chittle said she was surprised by the outpouring of support from the community, noting she thought the 10,000 signature mark on the open letter would take upwards of a week.
“People don't have the same type of choices about attending school verse attending some other types of indoor spaces, and I think we have a collective obligation to ensure schools are as safe and healthy as possible while the pandemic is still with us,” said Chittle.
On Thursday the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) announced it did not have the authority to continue with a mandatory mask policy, however, the board is strongly encouraging those indoors to wear a mask.
The UGDSB was one of a handful of school boards in Ontario that questioned the provincial directive to end masks and sought to keep a masking policy past the expiration of the provincial mask mandate on March 21.
The Wellington Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) said it will be following direct guidance from Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health as well as the Ministry of Education.
“Mask mandates protect all children, including children who have not been vaccinated and children who may be more vulnerable to serious COVID-19 complications and death,” the petition reads. “By limiting COVID spread in classrooms, mandatory masking also protects families and caregivers, including individuals who may be more vulnerable to serious COVID-19 complications and death.”
“We have this information from this panel of experts, so I think the part I found the most frustrating was the piece around saying the school boards themselves are not health experts when we can see clearly in the letters from the Children's Health Coalition, that Mr. Ford and Mr. Lecce aren't listing to the advice from a coalition of experts representing all the children's hospitals in Ontario,” said Chittle.
In November, Chittle was honoured with a 2021 Award of Excellence. The College of Family Physicians of Canada Awards of Excellence recognizes family doctors for exceptional achievement in the specialty of family medicine in the past 24 months. Nominations come from peers or the public to the provincial chapter of which the nominee is a member.