On Monday, August 30th a group of concerned parents delivered a signed petition to Good Spirit School Division (GSSD) and Christ The Teacher Schools (CTTS) with nearly 2,000 signatures of support. At the time of this article’s publication, the support had climbed to 2,351signatures.
The purpose of the petition is to request an official in person meeting with the Good Spirit & Christ the Teacher School Boards. The group has a desire to have it on record that, as parents and concerned citizens, they stand against the Back to School Plan and the health measures attempting to be implemented.
Last Friday, the brainstorming started when a small group of parents met to discuss their discontent for the GSSD and CTTS Return to School Plan and the discrepancy it has compared to the provincial measures listed by the government. The parents developed a petition online and started the flow of communication with the administration in the local school divisions.
Vanessa Andres, one of the concerned parents, was there as part of the group to deliver the petition. When asked about their children’s reaction to hearing they would be mandated to wear masks again, she said, “The kids were devastated. I’ve had many parents reach out to me.” Vanessa clarified that these parents mentioned suicidal thoughts developing in their children after how difficult last year was. Statistics Canada reported that suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth and young adults (15-34 years). Many children also did not understand the reasoning as they will still be interacting with their peers in many environments other than the school where masks are not mandated.
Another parent in the group mentioned, “This is a Charter of Rights and Freedoms issue. This is about our freedom of choice. We have rights as individual citizens of this country and those need to be maintained.”
The petition states, “While the Government of Saskatchewan has made the decision to keep our province open and remove the Provincial Health restrictions, we believe that the measures that our local school board is seeking to impose is an infringement on our basic Rights and Freedoms according to sections 2 (a),(b), and 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Our belief is that our schools should reflect the Provincial measures.”
There is a precedent set by other school boards in the province that follow the information given by the government.
“Moose Jaw School Board has taken a stand to respect the Rights and Freedoms of parents, students, teachers, and staff. We believe that all individuals should have the freedom to decide which health measures they choose to implement for themselves and their families. It is concerning that our local health officials would choose to act against the Chief Medical Officer’s Health recommendation for our Province. While our children can attend a football game at Rider Stadium with 33,000 unmasked individuals; under the Board’s current measures, they cannot sit unmasked in a classroom with 30 other students. When outside of a school setting, our children have the ability to be unmasked and interact with the same peers,” was included in the statement.
The concerned parents mentioned that the school board did vote on this issue but the vote was “unrecorded”. Currently, the vote count is not released to the public until these minutes can be approved at the next board meeting.
To summarize the intention of their efforts, the group made the statement, “We fundamentally believe that parents should be entrusted with the decision as to whether or not our children should be masked at school.”
The petition can be found online at https://www.change.org/p/gssd-and-cttc-school-division-concerned-parents-and-citizens-of-gssd-and-cttc-school-divisions-regarding-mask-mandate?redirect=false