Parents, grandparents, teachers, kids rally for more school guidelines

People across the province decided to go out Friday morning and make their voices heard in opposition to the Government of Saskatchewan’s Safe Schools Plan.

Protestors gathered in at least 15 different spots in Saskatchewan, including right in front of the legislative building in Regina.

Two girls protest the provincial plan to reopen schools at the legislature on Aug. 7, 2020. (Libby Giesbrecht/980 CJME)

About 70 people were there, all wearing masks and physically distancing, some holding signs reading things like “Schools teach the science you’re ignoring.”

They’re asking for improvements to the province’s back-to-school plan, saying it should have things like mandatory masks and physical distancing in classes as well as more money for schools to pay for the pandemic accommodations.

Darcy Sharman was there with her daughter, Sophia. Sharman said she’s quite concerned about back to school because her daughter’s school is nearly 60 years old and has poor ventilation and crowded classrooms.

“I don’t think my daughter has ever been in a class that’s less than 28 students packed into a classroom that was probably meant for 15 to 20 maximum. And just seeing the government disregard even its own recommendations for social distance, for mask-wearing, for closed spaces and crowded conditions just really concerns me. It makes me feel like we’re part of an experiment to see what happens if we relax the guidelines,” said Sharman.

Later Friday, the provincial government issued a release saying it was “actively considering” making mask use mandatory in classrooms. The government also said it had purchased six million masks for use by students and staff.

Sharman said she wishes the province would have started the school year with more strict guidelines and then relaxed them once there was evidence it will be OK.

“I think everybody would feel a lot safer if that was the approach — to be a bit more conservative at the beginning and then open it up later,” she said.

Attendees at the protest at the legislature hold up their signs on Aug. 7, 2020. The pair are protesting the return to school plan outlined by the provincial government. (Libby Giesbrecht/980 CJME)

Sharman and her husband feel like they’re in limbo right now because they don’t think they have enough information yet from the province and school divisions to make a decision on whether to actually send their daughter back to school.

Speakers to the crowd included parents, kids, politicians and those running for school board seats. They talked about the provincial government letting them down.

Some of them talked about being “angry mothers” over the plan, or lack thereof.

Gary Robins and Lisa Brownstone walked up together with a little girl in a stroller.

Robins said their 16-year-old grandson lives with them and is supposed to head into Grade 11 this fall. He said they’re not comfortable with the plans laid out by the Ministry of Education.

“The province has really dumped everything onto the school boards after a couple months of dithering and not saying anything. We look at what’s going on around us in other provinces, or even other parts of the world, and school reopening is a really hazardous endeavour,” said Robins.

He said he doesn’t think the situation is being treated seriously.

“They can do what they will to rationalize it and hope that it’s not going to be a huge problem but it’s a gamble, and you don’t gamble with kids’ lives, and you don’t gamble with kids’ physical health, their emotional health, their social well-being,” Robins said.

Brownstone and Robins are in a high-risk category for the virus, and Brownstone said the province’s plan, which they feel is inadequate, puts them in a tough position to decide whether their grandson will be able to physically go back to school.

“They’re taking more care about how they’re opening up bars than they are at how they’re opening up schools,” Brownstone said.