SCHOOL BOARD REPORT: Most Ottawa students and staff have stopped wearing masks
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As trustees at Ottawa’s largest school board prepare for a debate Tuesday on whether to require masks at schools once again, a report suggests most students and staff have dropped the practice.
Fewer than 10 per cent of students now wear a mask at Ottawa-Carleton District School board schools, according to an informal survey of principals cited in a staff report. Among teachers, about 15 to 20 per cent wear masks, the survey found.
The report doesn’t probe the reasons why or compare more recent mask use to the start of this school year, but schools reflect the broader community, where anecdotal evidence suggests a majority of people do not wear masks in other indoor public spaces.
At the same time, provincial and Ottawa Public Health authorities now “strongly recommend” people put masks back on to help blunt the spread of respiratory viruses among children.
A “triple threat” of RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), influenza and COVID-19 is sending record numbers of children to CHEO and other children’s hospitals.
Pleas from officials or increasing numbers of sick kids might have prompted a few more teachers to mask up. The staff report noted that “principals have also observed a slight increase in the number of staff wearing masks in recent days.”
On Tuesday, the board is set to hold a special meeting to consider a motion to require masks.
The debate encompasses a number of complicated factors, including the legal authority of the board to impose a mandate, how it would be enforced, when exemptions would be granted and what effect it might have on staffing levels.
The chair and vice-chair of the board support the masking motion, although the decision would be made by the entire 12-member board.
Seven trustees were just elected this fall, so this will be their introduction to the sometimes emotional issue.
There is a precedent in place as the board passed a similar temporary masking motion last spring when the province entered a new wave of COVID-19.
Ontario dropped the provincewide requirement to mask up in most public spaces in March.
This time, the Ottawa-Carleton board’s temporary mask mandate proposal is aimed primarily at reducing the spread of RSV and the flu, which are causing an unusually high number of babies and young children to land in hospital.
CHEO’s emergency department is overwhelmed. With recent waits as long as 17 hours to see a doctor, it has opened a second ICU unit and postponed certain surgeries and diagnostic procedures.
It’s hard to gauge the mood among parents about masking at schools and whether their outlooks have changed since last spring. Two opinion polls earlier this month suggested Ontarians would follow mandates.
A poll by Nanos Research for CTV found that 71.4 per cent of Ontario residents said they would support or share some support for the return of face mask mandates this fall in indoor public spaces if deemed necessary by officials.
A poll by Forum Research for the Toronto Star found slightly more than half of Ontarians would support a return to a provincial mask mandate, and nearly three-quarters said they would follow masking requirements should the government bring them back.
New school board trustee Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth, who proposed the motion to be debated, says the minority of parents who strongly oppose masks at school can be very vocal.
In addition, she said she has received hateful and threatening emails since she proposed the masking motion.
Members of the public will make two-minute delegations either in person or by video, since the meeting on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. will also be livestreamed. The deadline for signing up to speak has passed, but written comments were still being accepted.
Ottawa’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Vera Etches, will provide a written brief, which as of Monday afternoon had not been filed yet.
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