“Our children are freezing” | A father denounces the opening of school windows in freezing weather

(Montreal) Samuel Gagnon says his seven-year-old daughter told him it was sometimes so cold in her classroom that she wanted to cry.

Mr. Gagnon, who lives in Chateau-Richer, in the Quebec region, said his daughter’s school left the windows open in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

But after sending his daughter to school on a day when it was -40 degrees Celsius with the wind chill, he decided to take action, calling his constituency MP and posting a Facebook video encouraging others to do the same .

For Mr. Gagnon, the solution is simple. He thinks that Quebec should install air purifiers in classrooms, which is done in other provinces.

Heidi Yetman, president of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers, a union that represents teachers in English-language schools in the province, said that while the Ministry of Education has installed carbon dioxide detectors in approximately 50% of classrooms, it has not acted to improve air quality.

Quebec said it plans to install air exchangers in some classrooms, but M^me Yetman said she doesn’t know how many of the 400 devices the province says it received have been installed.

“The teacher who does not feel safe in her class and who has a CO detector₂ which says 2000 parts per million, when we are told to open the windows if it is over 1500 parts per million, this teacher is going to open the windows, because she does not feel safe,” she said. argue in an interview Friday.

Asked to comment on Mr. Gagnon’s video, Florent Tanlet, spokesperson for Minister of Education Jean-François Roberge, emailed a link to a January 21 press release issued by the Ministry of Education stating that teachers could close the windows in cold weather.

“The recommendations of the experts are clear: good ventilation is added to the measures already in place, such as wearing a mask, distancing and isolation measures in the event of COVID-19”, declared Minister Roberge in the press release dated January 21. “Having been a teacher myself, I am aware of the importance of opening the windows in the classrooms, but not at the expense of the comfort of the students, particularly in very cold weather,” he added.

M^me Yetman said the government was sending mixed messages, telling teachers to open the windows if the carbon dioxide level was too high, while telling them to keep the windows closed if it was too cold.

As of Thursday evening, the Department of Education reported that 49,852 students, or 3.64% of the province’s total number, were absent due to testing positive or having a suspected case of COVID-19. He said 2,080 teachers, or 1.53% of the province’s total, were absent due to COVID-19.

The ministry said that as of January 25, 96 classes in public and private schools were being conducted remotely and two schools were completely or partially closed due to COVID-19.

In-person classes at Quebec schools resumed Jan. 17, though many schools didn’t reopen until the next day due to a snowstorm.

Olivier Drouin, a father of two in Montreal, pointed out that the province is releasing less data than at the start of the pandemic, leaving parents in the dark.

“Quebec has stopped publishing case numbers in schools. They even stopped notifying parents if there is a positive case in their child’s class,” recalled Mr. Drouin, who has been tracking COVID-19 cases in schools since August 2020 with a project called COVID. Quebec schools.

Drouin said he is frustrated that the Quebec government no longer makes data on the number of cases in schools public and has “no clear action plan” to improve air quality in schools. schools.

On Friday, data from the provincial health ministry showed 43 children under the age of 10 were hospitalized with COVID-19, along with 27 other people between the ages of 10 and 19. Six of these patients under the age of 10 were in intensive care.

Earlier on Friday, the Health Ministry said a total of 3,091 people were in hospital, down 62 from the previous day. The number of people in intensive care fell by seven from the previous day, to 228.

Authorities have reported 48 additional deaths linked to the novel coronavirus.

This dispatch was produced with financial assistance from the Facebook Fellowships and The Canadian Press for News.