Schools – generally a safe place – to keep with present strategies

From Vancouver Sun

Stephanie Higginson, president of the B.C. School Trustees Association, doesn’t see any benefit to changing the length of the winter break to keep kids out of schools, whether that involves remote learning or simply a longer vacation.

“Despite the rise in cases in our general population right now, schools are actually very, very safe places for our students and our staff to be,” Higginson said.

“There’s a very good layer of protection, our safety plans are working. It’s when we start gathering in places where there are no safety plans that COVID is being transmitted in B.C. So what that tells me is that our schools are safe, our plans are working and that we don’t need to consider interrupting the face-to-face instruction that our kids are getting.”

During a briefing last week, Higginson said she was told that since schools opened in September there had been only 12 cases of in-school transmission inB.C, even though 650,000 to 700,000 people are involved in the Kindergarten to Grade 12 system every day.

Instead of adding to school safety plans, Higginson said, it’s important to focus on making sure that the existing plans are being implemented consistently, “because they’re working.”