In an email to CBC Toronto on Monday, the ministry said most health and safety requirements for the next school year will remain unchanged from the end of the 2021-22 school year, which includes the voluntary use of masks. “The government will continue to provide free high-quality masks for students and N95s for staff if they choose to use them, all of which remain unchanged from the 2021-2022 school year,” the email said. “School boards will continue to have access to rapid antigen tests that will be used in accordance with provincial testing guidelines.” The ministry adds that this year’s health and safety plan was consulted by leading medical experts, including the Children’s Health Coalition and medical health officials.
The news comes days after the province’s chief medical officer said Ontario’s seventh wave of COVID-19 has peaked. But when the mask mandate was lifted in schools last year, the Ontario Federation of Elementary Teachers called the move “premature” and said it would put students at risk of having in-person learning disrupted again. Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said in late July that the province’s priority is to keep students in the classroom for personal learning this coming school year. (Susan Goodspeed/CBC) Late last month, Education Minister Stephen Lecce pledged to keep Ontario’s two million students in the classroom for personalized learning this school year. “We have taken action by deploying over 100,000 stand-alone HEPA filter units in classrooms and learning spaces, improved cleaning and continued access to rapid antigen testing,” Lecce said in a statement. “Our administration remains focused on providing students with a positive, safe and normal school experience.”

“Our head in the sand”: expert

Since Ontario halted widespread COVID-19 testing in December, medical experts say it’s difficult to know the true number of COVID-19 cases in the community. “We basically have our heads in the sand, you know, because we don’t test for it,” says pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Anna Banerjee. With that in mind, Banerji says masks are the smartest thing to implement to keep kids safe — especially since many children in Ontario have yet to be vaccinated against COVID-19. “Wearing a mask, I think, is an easy thing for most people to do, to give them added protection,” Banerji told CBC Toronto. “Looking at what’s going to happen in the fall, where we’ve already had a seventh wave and we’re probably going to have an eighth wave … I think it’s a smart thing to do.” Ontario expanded the eligibility of the COVID-19 vaccine to children ages 5 to 11 in November of last year. (Evan Mitsui/CBC) Banerji says that while the summer months lower everyone’s guard, parents should be aware that children are still at risk of contracting COVID-19, particularly when they return to classrooms. “We know more kids are getting long-term COVID-19, kids are getting inflammatory syndromes, so get your kids vaccinated.”

Not surprisingly to the school board, the union

Robin Pilkey, administrator of Parkdale High Park School for the Toronto District School Board, says she wasn’t surprised by the news. “There’s really no difference between when people left in June and what’s going to happen in September,” Pilkey said. Pilkey says that until last spring, school boards were allowed to mandate masks for all staff and students, even if the province mandated masks only for certain grades or ages. But since mask mandates were repealed last spring, he says the current law removes that option. “We can’t suddenly say, ‘Oh, we want everyone to wear a mask,’ because under the law, we can’t do that,” Pilkey told CBC Toronto. Pilkey says schools continue to follow all orders according to provincial guidelines, including ventilation requirements, to keep schools safe. He notes that anyone is welcome to wear a mask if needed. “In cases where people felt they couldn’t go back to school, there’s online education. We’re doing what we can with that.” Karen Littlewood, president of the Ontario Federation of Secondary Teachers, also says she’s not surprised by the news. Despite that, he says the union has many concerns heading into the fall, including COVID-19 vaccination rates, a resurgence of cases, classroom distancing, proper ventilation, the disruption of face-to-face learning, and even emerging outbreaks of monkeypox. “We need to make sure people are informed and have all the protections they need,” Littlewood said. Littlewood says moving forward, the association will continue to consult with medical experts to ensure schools remain safe. “I think we’re at a point in the middle where people are going to make up their own minds, and I hope that no one is going to be embarrassed or ashamed because they choose to wear a mask,” Littlewood said. “The more people who wear masks, the more people who get vaccinated, the better protected everyone will be.”