One week after returning to the specialized schools, less than half of the students are present in class. The number of closed groups is skyrocketing amid COVID-19 infections as well as concerns from parents keeping their children at home as a precaution.
“The fire is caught. There is discouragement and even panic in special schools, ”says Kathleen Legault, president of the Montreal Association of School Directions (AMDES).
She reports that barely 35% of students were present Monday in specialized schools on the island of Montreal. According to school principals and teachers’ unions, the occupancy rate of specialized schools has not exceeded 50% since returning to class last week, in the midst of the surge in cases of the Omicron variant.
Fear of the virus strikes as around 100 doctors point to the low risks of the Omicron variant for children (see box).
All educational institutions in Quebec – elementary and secondary schools, CEGEPs and universities – must offer virtual courses since the start of 2022, except special schools for students with disabilities. The Ministry of Education has maintained lessons for these students, some of whom are severely disabled, who can hardly follow virtual lessons.
In the school system, everyone understands the need to keep these children in school. But no one feels safe due to the sheer strength of the Omicron variant. This surge in absences from specialized schools suggests the worst if the government maintains the return to class on Monday, January 17 in primary and secondary schools.
Wave of anxiety
“Obviously, the network is not ready to reopen schools next Monday. There will be a lack of people in the schools, we already know it will happen, ”says Kathleen Legault, who represents principals in Montreal.
The staff of specialized schools make the same observation. “My colleagues are anxious. They are afraid of being the next to be infected, ”says Amélie Cayouette, a teacher at L’Étincelle school, located in Montreal’s Mile-End.
In four days, more than half of the classes (14 out of 26) had to close in this school which welcomes 125 disabled pupils. Unheard of since the start of the pandemic. More than half of the groups are also closed at the Irénée-Lussier school, in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. This heavy toll is not surprising: these disabled students cannot wear a mask. Several of them need to be spoon fed. Distancing is impossible. Some do not understand the simplest instructions.
“It’s a fragile clientele. Many have breathing problems. It’s stressful for my colleagues and I: we don’t want the students to be infected, ”says Caroline Fauvel-Petit, teacher for a group of children with profound intellectual disabilities at Victor-Doré school, in the Paris region. Villeray district.
Five of the 25 classes at this special school were closed at the end of the day on Monday. This is as much as in the last year, according to the teacher. She wonders why she and her colleagues don’t have access to N95 masks, which are considered safer. At the Victor-Doré school, health personnel come to provide care to the students. These workers all wear an N95 mask, but those in the school network must be content with blue procedural masks.
A coveted mask
School principals and teachers’ unions are once again hammering out the same message: “For those who are secure, they must be given access to the N95”, says Kathleen Legault of AMDES.
School staff found “insulting” the justification of Dr Horacio Arruda, National Director of Public Health, who pointed out the ineffectiveness of an N95 mask that would be poorly worn by inexperienced workers. “School personnel are no more stupid than health personnel,” says Mélanie Hubert, president of the West Montreal Teaching Union (SEOM).
She is also concerned about the isolation period reduced from ten days to five days for adequately vaccinated students and staff. This measure is difficult to apply for staff members, recalls Mélanie Hubert.
“Imagine in a high school with 2,000 students. How are we going to ensure that the young people who are isolated for five days have had two doses of the vaccine? “, she says.
It is becoming urgent to provide rapid tests to schools and parents, underlines Catherine Beauvais St-Pierre, president of the Alliance of professors of Montreal. More than 7 million self-tests will be distributed to parents in January and February, Education Minister Jean-François Roberge announced last week. School staff will also have access to rapid tests as well as PCR screening tests.
The president of the Teachers’ Alliance is delighted that teachers also have access to the third dose of vaccine from January 15 – those in specialized schools can have it now – but recalls that it will take a few weeks before the protection against COVID-19 becomes effective for the entire profession.