A few Bowden students ended up hanging out in the front lobby of their school instead of attending class two days in a row when they refused to follow Alberta Health’s mask mandate.
On Wednesday, eight to 10 Bowden Grandview School students were stopped in the lobby and on Thursday the group grew to about 12.
“The school’s between a rock and a hard place because there’s a mask mandate so they weren’t prepared to allow them to proceed. They have to protect the safety of everyone else and support the mandate,” said Kurt Sacher, superintendent with Chinook’s Edge School Division.
“When the families chose not to pick up their students, we essentially had a protest situation. It was something we haven’t seen before.”
He said parents sent them back to school on Thursday and once again refused to take them home when they were not allowed beyond the lobby. Some parents actively supported them by bringing them lunch.
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Sacher said things escalated by Thursday when social media posts went viral, for example, falsely claiming that the students were locked in a broom closet. Then came the threats to staff.
“We were getting calls and messages from people as far away as Ontario and Quebec. When people are angry, just about the pandemic in general, and they don’t know the story and they hear about a story about a kid locked in a broom closet, they get upset.”
He said the division worked with the RCMP and agreed it made sense to move classes online Friday and Monday to allow the situation to calm down.
“In the meantime, we’re just going to be working with the families to see if we can find a solution that works for everybody.”
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Sacher said the jurisdiction supports students having a voice, and is happy to meet and listen to them, and figure out channels for them to advocate, but the disruption to the school and threats put staff in a difficult position.
It’s also important for the public to know that students only wear masks for about 15 per cent of their time at school, he said.
“They wear them in the common areas. Once they’re in the classroom facing forward, which is the bulk of the time, they remove the masks. They have considerable mask relief through the school day under the mandate.”
Bowden Grandview School has 267 kindergarten to Grade 12 students.
Those involved in the protest were in Grade 5 to 8.
“Certainly if families want to move to online, we’ll help them with that. If students are prepared to wear their masks and go to class, then they’ll be welcomed back.”
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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