(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)
January 03, 2021 - 12:57 PM
Thousands of B.C. parents are calling on the provincial government to extend the winter holiday period for two more weeks in response to ongoing COVID-19 concerns.
A petition with more than 37,000 signatures as of Sunday posted on Change.org, urges provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry to delay the return to classrooms.
“As cases are still on the rise we are now faced with a new issue there is a new strain of COVID-19. And now more than ever we need to figure out a new plan for our schools. To be sure that it is safe for students and staff to return.,” reads the survey
“We ask that Dr. Bonnie Henry extend the winter break for all BC students and make a new plan on how to safely return to school.”
The survey did not escape the attention of the teachers' union which retweeted a story about it with the following comment.
“Many teachers and parents, especially in communities with high transmission rates, are rightly worried about going back into classrooms. The #bced restart plan needs to be reviewed, we need a better mask mandate, we need reduced density in schools, and we need more data,” the BCTF said on Twitter.
During the last week of December, Dr. Bonnie Henry had addressed how children were being affected by a mounting number of school COVID-19 exposures.
Dr. Henry said the number of cases among school-age children represent about 12% of cases in B.C., and rises and falls mirror the cases in the overall community.
There have been four outbreaks have been declared in schools since the start of the term in September.
Fewer than 0.7 per cent of students have been confirmed to have COVID-19.
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