Why won't the government insist that children wear masks at school?

[cansu]

I am a teacher and I want to be at work. I hate remote learning. However I am more worried now than I have ever been about covid. I really wish that we could see the govmt really try much harder to make school safer and really listen to staff.
I do not understand why we are so reluctant to ensure the use of masks in school environments and I include primary in this.
All children, except for those whose special needs prevent it, wear a mask in school lessons and in all communal areas inside. No mask = no school. If parents send their child in without a mask, they are sent home. If pupils refuse to wear them, they are sent home.

Baffles me, to be honest. My kids are in the US—country of Covid deniers and general insanity—and yet my children (ages 7 and 9) have been back at school since September in masks. True, they are only in hybrid school, and have been since right after summer, but it’s been very effective. I hope that continues to be the case when they finally return to school full time in a few weeks.

@Redlocks28

That said, some of the larger cities and high population density areas are now experiencing increasing cases so the province is under lockdown. Yet, the last six months gave us some freedom and just trying to make the most of what we have. I am really hoping that we can soon ease lockdown at least for school to resume

What does a lockdown look like where you are? What closes and what restrictions do people have? Are schools open for critical workers?

Also-what sort of rates per 100,000 triggered the lockdown?

Sorry for all of the questions, I’m just keen to know how it’s looking there! Many thanks

Hi Redlocks, absolutely! I read to understand what other countries are doing, approaches, opinions. It’s a modified lockdown. All non-essential shops closed, and the recommendation from the chief medical officer is to limit leaving the house for essentials only. Non-essential shops can offer delivery or curb side pick up. This time more services are allowed to run eg dentist, non-GP services such as physiotherapist or other therapies for healthcare reasons. The public libraries are running a pre-order and collect system. Items are quarantined on return. (I missed my reading books incredibly; what a gift this is) Schools were meant to resume in person tomorrow but we have been provided new dates for this and online learning is back tomorrow. For how long is anybody’s guess.

Here’s a link to the announcement and details -
www.ontario.ca/page/covid-19-provincewide-shutdown

I think the decision was based upon increasing rates (we have a colour coded system of tiers; places in red continued to have rising numbers and tier progression for other places) and ICU bed occupation, and also geographic spread. The hospitals were asking the province to enter lockdown. There was also concern surrounding the impact of the holiday season added to the mix.

We have been lucky so far in the area we live in south Ontario (23 Jan is lockdown review day) but numbers are slowly creeping up. DC sad not to see friends but we are lucky to have good internet provision. Some of the rural areas, not so much. So this afternoon was hanging out with friends online.

I’d hate to have to be making the decisions on this. So many factors and considerations.

I really don't understand why masks can't be worn in UK schools.
My dc have been wearing masks for months now in school.
They go to a school in a USA state which has mandated mask wearing for all.

Look up the death rate and see is there a difference. In Ireland our rate was up by 56 people for the year. Yes 56 people. That’s not a pandemics and sticking masks on kids is bloody awful. Stick one on your face for the day then get it examined properly and see what shit lurks on it.

Secondary kids, yes they should wear masks.

Teachers should also wear masks and/or visors.

Primary age kids; can you imagine telling them constantly to put their mask back on?

A lot of primary education is about socialisation and exploring, a mask hampers that.

Lots of kids will get upset and/or claustrophobic and distressed.

Why do you think patients in hospitals don’t wear masks on most wards? Take mental health units for example, masks are optional as they cause distress if a patient doesn’t understand the need or feels panicky. Funny how all the medical staff still turn up to work.

Maybe doctors, nurses and HCAs should get our unions to declare our workplaces ‘unsafe’ then go against government advice and refuse to work!

(Sorry, I’m a bit annoyed as my daughter’s school decided to shut last night AGAINST government advice. So no keyworker places as it was a decision by the unions and teachers! Which means our NHS teams are yet again short staffed because teachers feel unsafe! How do teachers think other keyworkers feel?) 😡

I cant see what the problem is. I teach in Singapore where all children age 4 and over wear them to school. It took a bit of practice but it is so fine. They love all the character masks and as a teacher it needs feeding into your classroom management eg 'morning class, pop your pencil cases down, face the front and pull up your masks. Well done arent you all fantastic at wearing your masks, I will tell Mrs Headteacher that you're the best class in the school at it!' Repeat several times a day. It isnt such a drama honestly, they're so used to it my own young DC included. If everyone else is doing it they just do. And in Singapore community cases of covid are virtually eliminated...not just the masks but certainly helps.

@cansu

Here is a simple choice. Wear masks and have your children in school or keep them at home until the danger has passed.

If you are so concerned for your life stay off work until it's over, or get on with it like everyone else does.

@Iamnotthe1

I should add in the secondary school where older kids wore masks there have been several cases.

That may be because secondary schools currently look like this.

Have you got consent to post that photo? Lots of children you have just exposed. Remove it please

@cansu

The poster who told me to go off sick as I am the master of my own destiny is also full of shit. I am not sick. Why should I go off sick??

Why don't you go speak to your GP about your clear anxiety?

"In special schools or schools where they have children who can't wear a mask, they should be in smaller groups with much greater social distancing."

Children in special schools are already in smaller groups but you cannot enforce social distancing with many of the children who are in special school. Many require lots of close contact from staff and many would be impossible to keep away from each other. That has to be accepted.

GalaxyCookieCrumble
I am not sure why you have decided to post. Do you have anything useful to say or is it just nasty comments? I do not have anxiety, thanks.

My sons primary school haven’t had one single case either with 30 kids packed into a small room.

Let children carry on as normal is all I have to say

As a TA, I do not want to spend all my time telling kids put their masks back on. They will lose them, break them, flick them, drop them... it will be awful. I will struggle to communicate with several of them who are very quiet in the first place. They will be touching their faces more and take them off for lunch anyway so what's the point... if they have covid, then the virus will spread around when they are eating lunch

@cansu

What I am saying is that children should wear masks as should teachers. The only children who shouldn't should be those who are exempt for genuine medical or special needs.

In special schools or schools where they have children who can't wear a mask, they should be in smaller groups with much greater social distancing.

Children should be provided masks by their parents or the government. Schools and teachers should be strict about mask wearing and care / use of masks.

Parents and children who won't do this should be asked to stay at home until they can comply.

I don't think you've ever worked in a school...

Plenty of us who teach in primary schools don’t want to wear masks, nor do we want to spend all day policing children wearing masks, especially considering that they’d have them on and off all day and the touching would render them completely pointless.

It is incredibly hard to teach small children effectively when communication is hindered so much, we use non verbal communication and facial cues ALL the time.

If you want to wear a mask for the protection it could provide you, then I agree that should be entirely up to you and not dictated by school policy, but leave the rest of us to make our own personal choices please.

Maybe instead of reinforcing masks they should look at what is being put on the shelves in the supermarkets which is being called food and people put into their body. 90 percent of what is being sold in supermarkets cannot be recognised by our body as food and is putting so much pressure on our immune system. If they really cared about our health why are they allowing us consuming this shite! Sugar, processed, carbs, crisps, vegetable oils- these are so bad and found pretty much in all snacks. Eat real bio available food. Find a farm and buy directly from them unpasteurised diary and grass fed meat etc. Eat local food in season. Supermarket Veg are man made and full of toxins. I do don’t even want to get started on alcohol, coffee and toxic supplements. Maybe people need to think twice before blaming people for not wearing masks and saying no to vaccines. Who is putting pressure on the NHS? People who put shite into their body. Yes pretty much every illness under the sun can be linked to things we eat or don’t eat. When we don’t eat what our body’s were designed to eat our body’s start to eat itself and you are becoming sick. Grains is a food for slaves with very little bio dynamic nutrients and destroy our gut. They put it at the top of the food pyramid. Crazy! We are supposed to eat slave food which fills up our tummy but is not giving us the nutrients we need, then we are suppose to add toxic supplements to our body which the body doesn’t know what to do with. Eat real bio available food if you want to live a healthy long life not dependent on the NHS!

There hasn’t been any study on long term use of masks of any age. You are being a guinea pig again

Well said

You're a teacher and your prefer to have children excluded from education because they won't or can't wear a mask?

I don't understand this view fro the professional who work with children. The vast majority do and will comply. Those who don't are often the ones education and the system generally is failing already.

@Lourdes12 you know back in the day when we all ate like this the average life expectancy was about 40.

I don’t want my child to wear a mask. I have completely different views to you. The society you want to create scares me, just as much as you are scared now.
We are all just trying to do the best for our families. This isn’t a battle of who is right and who is wrong.

I empathise with this, @Newdonewhugh, but what about other families? What about teachers' families? Why is your family more important than them? They're more important to you, obvs, but in the overall scheme of things, all families are equal and should be treated the same.

I really don't think it's a big ask, compared to the risk of school staff getting ill and transmitting illness to their loved ones. I have a friend who has recently retired from teaching. Her husband is clinically extremely vulnerable. She was a truly committed teacher, turned round 2 failing rural primary schools, and gave everything to her job.

She is really relieved that she doesn't have to choose between going to work and her husband's health.

I'd feel differently if teachers were being prioritised for vaccination, but they're not. We all have the right to safe working conditions. That right isn't being upheld for school staff. I think it's wrong.

And, FWIW, I think police officers and prison staff should be prioritised for vaccination too. Where I live, infection rates have shot up because of an outbreak of Covid in the prison.

Schools abroad do it, with no issues so I don’t see why we shouldn’t

I work in healthcare and pre-covid we were all very well aware that masks become pretty much useless after about 20mins of wear.

So unless someone coughs in your face it will make no difference that they wear masks.

The only real reason people feel good about everyone wearing masks is because they feel they have some control over this tiny microscopic virus, at a time when life feels completely out of control.

Oh and you’re more likely to catch something from using a door handle or touching a desk or pulling out a chair anyway. You can’t contain every possibility.