Saskatchewan parents feel stress, anxiety as COVID cases pile up in schools

Keeping her kids in school and in sports is a high priority for North Battleford’s Amber Stewart.

But that changed last week when one of her three school-aged children tested positive for COVID-19.

“My oldest at-home daughter tested positive for COVID. So my kids actually only went to school for three days and now we’re all home,” Stewart said.

She and her husband also later tested positive for the virus, and she expected her other kids to as well.

“We both were quite sick with flu symptoms,” Stewart said. “I now have lost taste and smell, so that was fun. My other two so far are testing negative, however my youngest now has a little bit of a cough, and my son was saying his throat was feeling scratchy.”

She decided to keep all of her children home from school to be on the safe side, and to prevent them spreading the virus to others in school or on their sports teams.

Other parents, like Saskatoon’s Ryan Toxopeus, decided to pull their kids from school after receiving letters about COVID-19 cases in their children’s classrooms.

“At that point, I talked to my ex-wife and we decided we didn’t feel comfortable having our kids in school, knowing it was just a matter of time before they caught COVID,” he said with a sigh.

Toxopeus said he’s extremely anxious and tired and has made alternative arrangements for his children so he can work during the day.

“I have my kids this week and I’ve been dropping them off at my girlfriend’s place because she can work from home, and she offered to take care of them,” he said.

(Libby Giesbrecht/650 CKOM file photo)

Regina’s Shayna Murray said she also has mixed feelings about the return to school.

“Speaking about my kid, it’s good for her,” Murray said. “Being out of school was very hard on her. But obviously I’m really concerned with the number of cases going around. We’ve already had one (close) contact at school. I think it was on Day 2 that we already got a note.”

According to a letter to parents from Saskatoon Public Schools deputy directors Brent Hills and Charlene Scrimshaw dated Thursday: “With increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant and the reporting of positive results from at-home tests, there have been as many positive cases reported in our schools during the last eight days as were reported in the first four months of this school year.”

The letter also let parents know they should be prepared for possible disruptions to classes, including a temporary move to online learning, cancelled classes if substitute teachers can’t be assigned, bus disruptions, and families being asked to keep children that require one-on-one learning support at home if an Educational Assistant can’t be found to fill an absence.

Lists are also being sent home each day now in school divisions across the province, letting parents know which classrooms have had self-reported COVID cases.

So far, just over half a dozen classrooms in both the public and Catholic school divisions have moved to online learning in Saskatoon and Regina.

Stewart said her children’s teachers have been very helpful while they’ve been isolating, even sending messages late at night or early in the morning to help them with their assignments.

That sentiment is echoed by other parents. But confusion remains around rules regarding isolation.

“When I tested positive, I didn’t know what to do,” Stewart said. “What are the rules today as far as close contacts in the home? Who isolates? For how long? The (provincial) government has rules, the school has rules (and) my work has rules. It’s very confusing.”

Saskatoon’s Chris Locke, whose daughter was only back in school for two days before being notified of positive cases in her classroom, said he wished school divisions would do more to protect kids.

“I’m a little disappointed that what I’m seeing is school divisions seem to be doing, I guess, the minimum that’s required,” he said.

“I know ours for one hasn’t done above any of the guidelines that have come out from our government. And that’s concerning to me because we keep hearing from the CMHO (chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab) it’s a bad time to have gatherings of any kind.”

Murray said she doesn’t really know what extra measures schools are taking, other than masking and additional cleaning. For now, keeping her children in class is a day-to-day decision that will be based on what’s best for her family.

“We just kind of have to be ready to pivot,” she said. “But I thought we’d be somewhere closer to normal by now.”