Toronto ‘fully supports’ Ontario’s decision to send students back to class

With Toronto school boards set to welcome students back to class on February 16, the City’s mayor and its officials say they fully support the Ford government’s careful review and subsequent decision to allow kids back for in-person learning.

John Tory and Toronto’s top doctor, Eileen de Villa, both acknowledged that while any decision made will come with both positive and negative reaction, they say students are better suited inside classrooms if proper health and safety measures are followed.

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“We want schools to reopen safely and reopen before other sectors are reopened based on the medical advice we have received here in the city of Toronto,” Tory said Wednesday.

“I am in full support of the approach taken by premier [Doug] Ford and minister [Stephen] Lecce, including the approach taken with respect to City of Toronto schools, in particular. In-class learning is very important. Kids need the social development they get from going to school while being surrounded by teachers and their peers. We all agree as well that this reopening of schools must happen safely.”

De Villa, meanwhile, says that on the subject of reopening these schools, she is “of the belief, there is no perfect answer or solution during a pandemic.”

“To re-open, there can only be the rigorous application of best practices,” de Villa said.

“When schools were closed for months in the first part of the pandemic, it was in large part for the same reason almost everything else was closed, too. We knew very little about COVID-19 – how it’s spread, who is vulnerable to it, how it could be treated, and even if vaccines were possible. Over the past year, the body of knowledge has expanded.”

The Ford government announced Wednesday that across Peel, Toronto, and York Region Public Health Units (PHUs), schools will continue with remote learning until February 16.

Until then, before and after school programs will be permitted to reopen on that day and emergency child care will remain available until and including February 12, to support eligible front-line workers.

The province also says it’s introducing measures to continue to protect students and staff against COVID-19 in the classroom, including, but not limited to province-wide access, in consultation with the local PHU, to targeted asymptomatic testing for students and staff, as well as mandatory masking requirement for students in Grades 1-3, and masking requirement for Grades 1-12 outdoors where physical distancing cannot be maintained.

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There will also be enhanced screening for secondary students and staff.

“In Toronto, when school returns, there are systems in place provided by the province, the school boards, and schools’ testing partners and Toronto Public Health (TPH),” de Villa said.

Toronto’s top doctor also confirms that TPH has increased its school response team capacity above what they had last fall to almost 200 staff supporting schools students staff and families.

De Villa says there will also be daily screening of staff and students.

“If a student or staff has even one mild symptom of COVID-19, they cannot attend school and should go for testing,” she added.

“There are also screening questions so that if someone is sick at home with COVID-19, or isolating at home because they were close contact of someone with [the virus]. Or if someone recently traveled, a student or staff in that home does not attend school.”

Toronto reported over 400 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.