Teachers' unions ask Ottawa's top doctor to close schools until new safety measures in place

A joint letter from Ottawa's teachers' unions is asking that medical officer of health Dr. Vera Etches keep schools closed until additional safety measures are put in place to protect staff and students from the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

The letter, dated Dec. 31, was shared on social media. It was written on behalf of the Ottawa Carleton Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, the Ottawa Carleton Elementary Occasional Teachers' Association, the Ottawa English Catholic Teachers' Association, and "various bargaining units of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, District 25."

It asks that Dr. Etches "take matters into (her) own hands and close Ottawa schools to in-person learning" until the following conditions are met:

• Staff and students have access to N95 masks/respirators;
• Education workers and students over the age of 12 have been prioritized for booster shots;
• Students aged 5-11 have had their second dose of the vaccine; and
• HEPA filter units are in place in all in-use classrooms.

"With a growing number of cases in our schools, we believe Ottawa needs to close in-person learning until schools are safe. We ask that you please use your authority to order schools to close in-person learning temporarily and switch to virtual learning as the most prudent pathway to ensure consistency and safety for all," the letter says.

The letter notes that while COVID-19 infection in children is typically milder, "we need to remember that long COVID is a real possibility," and adds that children "live in families and communities."

The province delayed the return to in-person learning would be pushed back to Wednesday instead of Monday, with no virtual classes on Monday and Tuesday. Ottawa's English school boards were set to resume in-class learning on Monday, while Ottawa's French boards are off until Jan. 10 because their Christmas break began a week later. The province also issued a memo saying it would stop collecting COVID-19 numbers from school boards and suspend reporting of new coronavirus infections among students and staff starting next week.

"While we are all concerned about the mental health of students, a significant contribution to the stress and anxiety around school has been ongoing and unpredictable change," the letter from the unions says. "Having the measures above in place as prerequisites for a return to in-person learning will help to ensure that in-person learning is sustainable and safe in the long-term."

The unions also asked Dr. Etches to advocate for additional layers of protection for in-person learning, such as providing N95 masks to students, reducing class sizes, making masks mandatory for all students—including kindergarten—improving ventilation in all schools, making rapid antigen tests more widely available, and ensuring a broad uptake of asymptomatic testing in schools.

"Ontarians simply cannot wait for the Ford government to start listening to medical experts and implement the necessary measures," the letter says. "You have the necessary authority to both prioritize education workers and other essential workers for immediate access to the COVID-19 vaccine and where necessary, temporarily transition learning and teaching to remote/virtual learning to protect students and educators. We urge you to act now."

While booster doses are available to anyone 18 and older in Ottawa through the provincial portal or participating pharmacies, appointments are in short supply.

In a statement on New Year's Eve, Etches encouraged residents to reduce vectors of transmission as much as possible, including by pausing or limiting indoor gatherings with people from other households, actively screening for COVID-19 symptoms and isolating if any are present, and getting everyone, including children, fully vaccinated and given boosters, if eligible.

In her statement, Etches said Ottawa Public Health would "support schools in implementing the new provincial guideline to keep children in school to support their well-being." Etches has generally been an advocate for keeping schools open as much as possible. 

"We know this continues to be a challenging time for families with children in school and in childcare. Ottawa Public Health is awaiting further guidance from the Province regarding schools and looks forward to sharing this information with parents and guardians as soon as it is available. In the meantime, we ask parents and guardians to continue to actively screen children for COVID-19 symptoms, and to keep children home if sick," Etches wrote.