The Saskatchewan Teacher’s Federation is calling on the government to take increased action to limit community spread of COVID-19.
STF President Patrick Maze says they want the government to expand mask use to include the whole province, suspend all extra-curricular activities, and limit the number of schools each staff member can attend.
Maze says the increasing case numbers have left teachers around the province very concerned.
“We’re very worried, and we’re hearing from many, many members that this situation is unacceptable and that their health is at risk,” said Maze. “So, they want government to act, and act quickly, to get this back under control.”
Maze says he’s disappointed in the way the government has let each school division make their own rules, instead of introducing a province-wide mandate.
He adds he thinks the decision was political in nature.
“Now that the election cycle has come to an end, I’d like government to get a lot more serious about the direction that they’re giving,” said Maze. “Stop giving options, stop passing things off to school divisions to either implement or not implement. They need to get serious about it now.”
Despite several jurisdictions cancelling extra-curricular activities, Maze says some school divisions have decided to go ahead with them.
He says that schools have done a good job thus far keeping transmission limited, but that’s only going to get harder without tougher universal guidelines.
“The problem is, schools don’t operate in isolation,” said Maze. “So, as long as, out in the community, people think they can still run hockey practices, and they can still have Halloween parties, and they can still go to bingo events, and these things still continue, as long as that’s happening, we’re still going to find cases from the community coming into our schools.”
He says he hopes the province keeps schools open, as the economic impact of a second round of closures would be devastating.
