Hamilton’s public school board will require all staff and students to wear masks, but it is not a mandate.
At Monday’s meeting, Hamilton-Wentworth District Schools Board trustees voted 10-3 for the “temporary universal masquering requirement”.
This policy is immediately effective and applies to all HWDSB Schools.
Staff and students will however have the “unrestricted” option to opt out, as stated in the motion’s language.
Hamilton-Wentworth district school has also stated that trustees will be reviewing the requirement at a January meeting.
“It’s not really an obligation and that’s the main point. “We’re not asking for any mandate. We’re trying to improve masking by making it an unquote requirement. Recognizing that people will have choices, our staff will need to figure out how to implement that so it doesn’t place a burden on administrators or create conflict within schools,” Dawn Danko (chair of the Hamilton-Wentworth District Schools Board) stated during the meeting. We have allowed staff flexibility because I believe that it is important to encourage people to make changes and think about how they can protect others.
Monday night’s meeting was more than three hours long and featured presentations by members of the public who were either in favor or against the use of masks in classrooms.
Jennifer Abbatiello (a parent) addressed the board and questioned the effectiveness of masks. She claimed that it was up to the board to show evidence that they were effective.
Another speaker from Equity Network used their time to tell the story of a Dundas boy, five years old, with chronic health issues. He is “at high risk” for respiratory infections and often requires hospital admissions to ICUs.
Tanya Collins stated that Joanne (the mother of the boy) takes her son to school every day. She does this knowing that she may die. People have decided that, despite evidence that masking reduces spread of viruses in the air, it is too much to put a piece of material on their faces.
HWDSB IS THE FIRST ONTARIO BOARD THAT REVIVES MASKING REQUIREMENT
There have been meetings between several Ontario school boards to discuss the revival of masking requirements over the past weeks. However, the HWDSB was the first to put into place a requirement. It is a requirement that allows for universal opt-out.
Two weeks ago , a motion to require all students and staff at Ottawa’s English public elementary schools and secondary schools to wear a mask was defeated in a tie vote.
A motion to ask local public health officials for a mandate for schools was also discussed by the Durham District School Board. However, that motion was defeated after a contentious meeting.
As a result, many children’s hospitals are struggling to deal with an influx of RSV, influenza, and other viral illnesses, the effort to reintroduce concealing in schools is a good one.
Some hospitals, such as the Hospital for Sick Children had to limit their operations in order to free up beds for critical care units.
