Teachers Demand Accelerated COVID-19 Testing in Schools and Accurate Data on InfectionsAs of August 31, Quebec students are back in schools from the kindergarten to high school levels. Already, cases of COVID-19 infection have been reported in schools in many regions of Quebec. Most who have tested positive are teachers, but students have also been affected. Entire classes have been sent home for preventive isolation, in addition to the teachers who have tested positive and colleagues with whom they were in close contact.
The data released gives the names of 47 schools where at least one case of COVID-19 infection was reported between August 26 and September 3. However, the list does not reveal the number of known cases per school, only the name of the school, the board or service centre that oversees it -- which helps indicate the region -- and the date the case was reported. Nothing useful can be done with this information. After this limited information was made public and teachers and parents firmly denounced the government for not doing its duty to inform them, the government committed that it will soon publish a table showing the number of new cases among both students and staff, by health region, school service centre and school. Sylvain Mallette, President of the Autonomous Teachers' Federation (FAE), spoke to the press after the list was posted and said: "The government cannot pretend that it was ready for the new school year when it waited until September 4 to give an incomplete picture. It's a potentially deadly virus, and they are pretending that things can just fall into place as we go along." He blamed the Quebec government for wanting to "minimize" the current situation. According to him, the list circulated on September 4 obscures the fact that there have been upheavals experienced in several classrooms due to the reported cases. "Students are currently facing educational breakdowns," he noted, referring to infected children and teachers being quarantined. He gave the example of the Polyvalente de Deux-Montagnes, in the Laurentians, where six teachers have contracted the disease and 20 others are still in preventive isolation. The FAE is asking for the publication of more information including whether an infected staff member is a teacher or other education worker (while preserving his or her anonymity), as well as what measures have been taken when infections are detected to do contact tracing and implement quarantines. In these circumstances, teachers are also taking action to demand accelerated testing for COVID-19 in schools and for public disclosure of data on infections in schools. According to the FAE, the Minister of Health and Social Services announced, on August 10, the implementation of an accelerated and effective screening mechanism in schools. "There is no evidence that such screening is in place," says the FAE. The Federation therefore announced on September 2 that it will apply to the Quebec Superior Court to force the government to establish the requested mechanism and provide all the documents related to the health plan that apply to the school system, in particular the data concerning cases of infection. Accelerated screening services in schools and the publication of data on cases of infection would allow for rapid action in the event of an infection and an accurate assessment of how these cases happened so as to remedy the situation.
Sylvain Mallette had this to say to Workers' Forum on the issue of accelerated testing for teachers: "Right now there are teachers and other education colleagues who have to wait more than 48 hours to get an appointment to have a test and 48 to 72 hours to get a result," he said. "The domino effect is very strong in the school environment. There is no mechanism that allows someone who has symptoms to be tested quickly and get a result very quickly. The lack of an accelerated screening mechanism causes a serious health and safety problem in schools and creates conditions for the spread of COVID-19. It also causes a disruption in student learning and a disorganized work environment. It is unacceptable that the government has not provided any means to deal with the consequences of the type of back-to-school program it has chosen, which does not involve physical distancing in the classroom." He added: "At the FAE, we have a legal duty to ensure the health and safety of our members. We also have a moral duty because if our members get sick, our students can get sick and their parents can get sick. However, we must be given the means to ensure the health and safety of our members, which is not currently the case. The government is not doing its duty to fully protect the health and safety of our members as well as of the staff, and it is not providing us with the means to do it either."
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
So far, the government has imposed a code of silence on the COVID-19
cases in schools. The Ministry of Health and Social Services waited a
whole week, until September 4, to release only limited data and did so
in a way that does not allow anyone to get a clear picture of what is
happening and what measures are being taken.
The government is more than reluctant to implement a systematic
screening plan in schools and to provide the information that the
teachers are asking for. Many teachers are saying that this is because
systematic screening in schools is seen by the government as a cost
that they don't want to pay, under the hoax of maintaining the
so-called
balance between safety and the economy. This is not acceptable.
Safeguarding the health and the safety of the people is a matter of
principle, a matter of upholding rights, and all measures must be
implemented so that this right is guaranteed. It cannot be a matter of
"balancing" and gambling with people's lives.