Parents, teachers worry as N.B. sticks to guns on schools free of COVID rules – CBC
Dr. Jennifer Russell says New Brunswick will ‘stay the course,’ and mandatory school masking won’t return
Mar 24, 2022
For Miramichi mother Kathleen Gadd, the return to school after March Break has been the most difficult time of the entire pandemic.
On March 14, all COVID-19 restrictions were lifted by the Blaine Higgs government, including mandatory masking, physical distancing and required isolation for those who are infected.
On the weekend before students headed back to the classroom after their one-week break, Gadd agonized about sending her daughters back to their elementary school, knowing no precautions would be in place.
“I felt like I was being pressured to send my kids into an unsafe environment,” she said. “Without any acknowledgement of that from the people responsible for that environment. It was a really horrible feeling.”
After weighing the risks of contracting COVID-19, and the benefits of being in school, Gadd and her husband decided their daughters would return to school on two conditions. First, that they would wear high quality, well-fitted masks at all times, and second that Gadd would pick them up for lunch so they could avoid that “very risky” time in the cafeteria.
