School Daze

From Reddit: pic.twitter.com/QNLRl937V8

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 😷🏳️‍🌈 (@CathieCanada) August 6, 2020

Oh dear, I think we're in trouble now.
The Sask school plan is based on wishful thinking - it imagines that COVID is symptomatic, that students with symptoms can just stay home or go home, and that nobody else (teachers, parents, staff) will get sick.https://t.co/lh4Je7b64F

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 😷🏳️‍🌈 (@CathieCanada) August 5, 2020

I don't have any children or grandchildren in school these days, and thank heavens for small mercies.

One thing that really impresses me about Saskatchewan is how consistently we've been able to come up with the worst plan in Canada on a broad range of policies, from suicide prevention to school reopening. Truly inspirational.

— glengarry glen busey (@birlios) August 5, 2020

I think this mom has it right:

After a lot of conversations & thinking, we have decided the safest thing we can do for our son is keep him home in Sept. He will be learning via the CBE online hub. I will have to give up my job as they require me back in person as of Sept, but I know this is the right choice.

— Lucy 🇨🇦 (@TheBlueGem3) August 7, 2020

The School Safe "plan" in Saskatchewan is based on wishful thinking:

What I don't understand is why employers in the business sector are not demanding a better plan for schools. If their employees cannot be at work because they have to stay home with their kids, won't that cause the economy to shut down again? #skpoli #sasked #covid19sk https://t.co/VOy9q6bhEc

— Maren Beaton (@maren_beaton) August 7, 2020

Parents aren't happy:

What I am curious on (if it’s been mentioned anywhere, let me know) is what happens if one staff or kid tests positive? Is every single person in school that has come into contact with that one positive case going to be sent for testing and isolation till test results come back?

— Bort (@Kfb28) August 7, 2020

Neither are doctors:

Saskatchewan's doctors press for safer return-to-school plan - Premier Moe says he's open to changes: https://t.co/dHuAVThnNO @SMA_docs @keepskkidssafe @GordWyant Dr. Shahab @SaskHealth @CBCSask

— Dennis Kendel (@DennisKendel) August 8, 2020

I am concerned that the Sask Party seems to be reducing the whole School debate to a discussion of whether or not to make masks mandatory, while the Sask Medical Association is asking for a much broader look at school problems:  

[SMA says]“Closed spaces with poor ventilation, crowded spaces with many people, and close-contact settings with close-range conversations are not uncommon in schools and these realities need to be front and centre in back to school plans.” Education Minister Gord Wyant said Friday that, in response to the association’s concerns and recommendations from the Public Health Agency of Canada, the province is looking at making masks mandatory. 

 And it is, of course, not just the schools themselves that are problematic. Its also the impact that COVID increases in schools would have on the rest of us.

I spent four months staying away from people, stores, restaurants, everything. So will I have to go back to that kind of life if there is community COVID spread here again? Yes, I'm afraid so.

I spent my evening sobbing in the park with my husband and mother-in-law about how it will now be unsafe to see our families as soon as schools reopen.

There is no plan.

Our province has failed.

— Amy (Lawson) Empringham (@lawsonames) August 5, 2020