Kids heading back to school need honesty, doctor says

As a mother of young children herself, Dr. Carla Holinaty says kids are capable of understanding these are not normal times.

Since the pandemic started, Holinaty — a family doctor and University of Saskatchewan faculty member — has been talking to her elementary school-aged kids about COVID-19, the risks and the implications.

“I think kids are way smarter than we often give them credit for. They can understand a whole lot,” Holinaty told Greg Morgan Morning Show guest host Sarah Mills on Wednesday.

While the Saskatchewan government’s back-to-school plan aims to keep the classroom “as normal as possible,” Holinaty said it’s important to be honest with children.

She suggested the key is to make sure things are explained in a way that’s age appropriate.

“It’s not impossible for them to understand. They’re very aware of what the risk is and what they need to do to keep safe,” she said.

Holinaty was disappointed in the plan, hoping especially to see more directives on masks. She said they should be recommended, if not made mandatory as they have been in other provinces.

She said Saskatchewan was the last province in Canada to release its plan and could have done more to examine best practices.

“So I would have expected that our government would have been watching what all the other provinces have been doing,” she said.

“You can cherry-pick in that situation and pick the very best pieces of all of everybody else’s plan. What we ended up with was hard to even really call a plan.”