Back-To-School Plans Amid COVID-19 Raise Concerns

A group of parents who don’t want their children to attend school in person during the COVID-19 pandemic will file a legal challenge to order Quebec to offer the option of remote learning for students.

According to lawyer Julius Grey, the back-to-school COVID-19 lawsuit will argue that Quebec’s requirement that children attend classes in person is a violation of their parents’ Charter rights to make important decisions about their children’s safety and health.

“There are certain decisions that cannot be made by the government for people,” Grey told CBC News in a phone interview.

“Of course the government can make basic curriculum decisions — for instance, people who wanted to protect their children from the study of science were always rebuffed — but they cannot make these fundamental decisions about life, death, security.”

Grey notes that there are many reasons parents may want to keep their children out of in-person classes amid COVID-19. They may have grandparents or sick siblings at home. Some parents simply have anxiety about the risks associated with sending their children into crowded classrooms during a global pandemic.

Many parents don’t have the ability to homeschool their children, Grey says. Further, many parents do not want to take their children out of their normal classes without a guarantee that they will be able to return to school next year.

Grey argues that it is evident that the government is able to provide distance learning for students because it is already providing education for students who have health exemptions.

“They are providing Zoom education for those children who qualify under the narrow exemptions they have,” Grey said. “There’s no reason they wouldn’t provide it for all those parents who, for better or worse, for good reason or bad reason, say they are not comfortable sending their child to school.”

According to CBC News, Quebec will only offer remote learning options if a child or someone in the child’s household has an existing medical condition that puts them at an increased risk of health complications.

Children who don’t have a medical exemption must attend classes in person or be homeschooled, Education Minister Jean-François Roberge said Monday.

“If [they] present a risk for health, of course we will help those kids to learn at home with the help of teachers and support staff,” Roberge said at a news conference. “But if the kids don’t have some sickness related to COVID-19, the best place is to go to school, of course.”

Roberge also announced that the province would provide $20 million in funding to hire about 350 teachers and specialists to assist students who have struggled to keep up with their classes due to COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions. In particular, this funding is meant to assist students with learning disabilities or other challenges such as autism spectrum disorder, ADHD and dyslexia.

Politimi Karounis, a parent who is involved in the COVID-19 back-to-school lawsuit, is concerned that if she sends her children back to school, it “would mean my child is in class for five or six hours a day, with 35 students, without a mask, without social distancing, when at home I can guarantee several basic security measures.”

Grey is reportedly seeking an emergency hearing and hopes to get a decision about the COVID-19 back-to-school options within the next few weeks.

Schools are also wary of having children attend classes in person during a pandemic. The Toronto District School Board has reportedly been fighting to reduce the size of their elementary class sizes in order to limit the number of contacts for students and teachers. However, the Ontario Ministry of Education rejected their latest proposal.

Some schools are considering waivers to relieve them of liability in the event a student contracts COVID-19. However, legal experts suggest that schools could still be vulnerable to lawsuits. 

“What schools are also worried about is that they’re going to do everything and they’re going to be careful and they’re going to sanitize stuff (but) some kid’s going to walk in and before even getting screened, sneeze on a bunch of kids and spread COVID-19,” Toronto lawyer John Schuman said.

“And then they’re going to get sued even if they’ve done everything they possibly could to stop the virus.”

There are also questions about whether a COVID-19 waiver could be enforceable once children head back-to-school.

Schools have already faced legal action over the interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this summer, a class action lawsuit Canada was filed against all Montreal private schools because parents had not been reimbursed for school fees even though the schools closed on March 13 to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

What are your thoughts on the back-to-school plans amid the COVID-19 pandemic? Do you have children or dependents in school? Do you think kids should physically return to school or do remote learning? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below! 

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