SSRCE School Bus. Photo Ed Halverson

Parents are upset schools are not telling them about COVID in classrooms.

As public health moves away from contact tracing, parents must rely on each other to find out if their kids have been exposed in schools.

One of those parents is Matthew Verge whose two stepchildren aged seven and eight attend Centre Scolaire du la Rive Sud in Cookville.

Verge became concerned when he learned one of his children’s close friends contracted COVID but no one from the school let his family know.

“We not only didn’t receive a notification that there was a case,” said Verge. “We didn’t receive a notification that we wouldn’t be receiving notifications.”

Verge says the school community is tight and parents do a good job of informing each other what is happening in classes but argues it shouldn’t be up to parents to contact each other about a potentially serious illness.

“I think it’s doubtful that a parent would end up just simply not knowing that there was a COVID case because there’s such a strong network. But that said, it’s not their responsibility,” said Verge. “And frankly, you could be the most involved parent that you could possibly be and you still wouldn’t have every contact information of every person.”

Verge’s concern is echoed across Nova Scotia.

Stacey Rudderham speaks for Nova Scotia Parents for Public Education, a Facebook group of over 20,000 parents from all over the province.

Her members are angry that school administrators are ordered not to share information about COVID cases in their schools with parents.

Rudderham understands the need to protect people’s privacy but says if a parent is willing to come forward and reveal their child has COVID to prevent classmates from contracting or spreading the virus, school officials should be allowed to get that message out to other parents.

“The message would be clear and it would be correct and people would feel like they were being informed. That’s the big thing,” said Rudderham. “We know from lots of experience that parents just; they want to be informed.”

Verge says that information is important for families to have when dealing with immunocompromised relatives.

“Do we not send them to school, do they never see their grandmother, do we risk the kids getting COVID themselves? Supposedly it’s okay with kids, but it’s not always. I don’t see why it’s such a big deal to just tell us,” said Verge.

No one from Public Health or the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development replied for a request to comment on whether the policy preventing administrators from contacting parents would be reviewed.

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SSRCE School Bus. Photo Ed Halverson

A parents group is concerned the Nova Scotia government hasn’t fully thought through the return to schools.

Students across Nova Scotia are set to resume classes following the Christmas holidays January 10.

Co-chair of Nova Scotia Parents for Public Education Stacey Rudderham says the province has yet to address long-standing issues around air circulation, proper spacing for students, social distancing and releasing test results so parents can make informed choices whether to send their child to school.

“We want to see kids back in school. That’s definitely something that, you know, everybody agrees on is that kids, as much as possible should be in school,” said Rudderham. “However, a lot of the issues that have existed throughout COVID have not been resolved in our schools.”

For Rudderham and her group, it’s the lack of transparency and openness from officials that is most troubling.

“Last September, when government said they wouldn’t be listing school notices for any of the schools, we started our list and our group and our group grew by thousands of new members within days because we were the place to come and get information,” said Rudderham. “Parents want to know what’s going on in their schools.”

Nova Scotia is reporting 1,020 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday.

Rudderham questions why Nova Scotia is returning to in-class learning when other provinces are moving to an online model until the omicron COVID-19 variant can be brought under control.

She says education and public health officials need to consider there is more than just the school community at stake.

“It’s not just about if our kids are definitely going to get sick. It’s about who else that, you know, maybe they aren’t going to get sick but who are they going to impact if they do carry it home?” said Rudderham.

A representative from the South Shore Regional Centre for Education declined to comment on what measures are being put in place to ensure the safety of staff and students, saying the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development will share more information with staff and families about the back-to-school plan later this week.

Premier Tim Houston and chief medical officer of health doctor Robert Strang will provide a COVID update Wednesday at 3:00 PM.

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SSRCE School Bus. Photo Ed Halverson

A parents group wants masks to stay on in public schools.

Nova Scotia Parents for Public Schools, a Facebook group with close to 18,000 members is raising their concerns after the province’s chief medical officer for health Dr. Robert Strang announced students and staff would no longer be required to wear masks beginning September 20.

Co-chair Stacey Rudderham says the decision whether or not to wear a mask can’t be left up to students.

“Kids don’t know how to make personal choices that are always in their best interests.”

Rudderham says many of the parents in her group are worried ventilation issues at their schools still haven’t been addressed.

That combined with the decision to drop the masking requirement has shaken their faith in public health direction being put forward by the province.

“Last year we saw a lot of people saying that they trusted the situation was going to be fine and after the spring, we’re not seeing a lot of that in the group anymore,” said Rudderham.

Unlike Nova Scotia, many provinces are requiring teachers to either prove they have been fully vaccinated or undergo regular COVID testing.

The lack of proof isn’t an issue for Rudderham.

Despite having any hard numbers to confirm her speculation, she’s confident the majority of teachers have had their vaccines.

“We were very aware of last spring was that the NSTU (Nova Scotia Teachers Union) and the teachers were asking to prioritized; that they should be treated like healthcare workers and they wanted to be vaccinated,” said Rudderham. “They were very much stressed out about the amount of risk that they were facing.”

The Nova Scotia Parents for Public Education group is putting together a letter outlining their concerns to present to the newly appointed Minister of Education Becky Druhan.

Rudderham expects to send that letter off to the department within the week.

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