A mother from our school wrote to me recently. Concerned about the forest fires which are already smoldering and which will soon regain strength, she asked me if it would be possible to install air purifiers in the classrooms. Little did she know that she was opening a gigantic Pandora’s box.
Four years after the start of this pandemic from which we have learned too little, how can I respond to it without getting angry? How can we explain to him the absurd and obstinate refusal of our institutions towards them? When, in 10 or 15 years, nothing will have changed, because the work to install air exchangers will have been deemed too expensive and will have taken a long time to be carried out, and the quality of the air in our classes will have deteriorated further, how will we explain the situation to our children?
Montreal, June 7, 2039. A mother and her son are talking in their living room, not far from a window. Their faces are bathed in a strange orange glow.
—Mom, why do we still have to stay at home?
— Schools are closed because the air quality in classrooms is too bad, kitten, it’s dangerous. Forest fires are very strong because they no longer go out in winter. There is too little snow on the ground, the temperatures are too mild. The smog is there, almost every day, eager to stick to your little lungs.
— But I would like to see my friends, I miss my teacher… Why is home okay, but not school?
— Because here, we installed air purifiers a long time ago. It was long before you were born, when mom was just out of college. There was a pandemic. COVID-19, a dangerous virus, has killed many people and weakened tons more. Do you remember my friend Mylène?
— The one in the wheelchair, with the big sunglasses and the completely white hair?
— Yes, that Mylène. That’s what made her sick. In short, this virus was transmitted through the air. During the pandemic, schools were closed for a very long time. Then, one day, the CAQ government…
— What is the CAQ?
— The Coalition Avenir Québec, a dead political party, I’ll tell you about it. So, one day, the government ended up listening to parents who asked that we act by installing small machines in classrooms to measure air quality.
— Oh yes, there is still one in mine. We call it Joe 2000, because the reader always displays at least 2000 PPM!
— So, when these little machines, CO sensors2, indicated more than 1500 PPM, it was necessary to change the air in the classroom because it became more risky to catch the virus. And to change the air, the government had given the directive to open the windows.
— Open the windows? But that doesn’t work with smog! We have air purifiers at home, why aren’t they in schools?
— You have to go back to January 2021 to understand. That month, a committee meant to protect public health submitted a report, in which it decided not to recommend installing air purifiers in classrooms. He didn’t ban them, but it was just like! Because when a school wanted to install one, it asked permission from the level above, the school service center, which based itself on the directives of its boss, the Ministry of Education, which, he relied on the non-recommendation of the committee…
— But why is Julie-Anne’s school open, then?
— Because Julie-Anne goes to a private school. And these schools had the freedom to install them.
— But that’s not fair! Today, despite the smog, she can continue to learn and not me! Besides, it seems to me that there were already a few fires at that time? Grandpa told me about going to put out some on the North Shore…
— You have a good memory, my darling. The fires were already a reality. Even in 2024, the air quality has worsened in classrooms… Was it because teachers opened the windows less in winter, tired of their students freezing? Maybe… But in May and June, when there were heatwaves coupled with forest fires, the students had to take their ministry exams while suffocating… Despite all this, the government persisted in refusing purifiers for rather do large, very expensive and very long jobs. And, 15 years later, your school is still waiting for its turn.
– It makes me sad…
—Me too, my cat. I really wish you were in class, breathing clean air, and not having to tell you all this.
—Mom, you know what? In this whole story, I think that common sense has gone out the window.