A discriminatory phrase I read to describe remote learning "TRIAGE" SCHOOLING suggests that we must focus first on populations most poised to benefit from online learning (i.e., neurotypical, resource-rich students) during an emergency.

Where to begin my critique? A THREAD

"Triage" is used to describe the process of allocating treatment to battle and disaster victims. To use triage to describe schooling at home while healthcare professionals are making real decisions that determine the life and death of patients diminishes the weight of the term.

Currently, Ontario's COVID-19 Triage Protocol is under fire for discriminating against persons with disabilities, even though they are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

https://archdisabilitylaw.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/April-8-2020-Open-Letter-Ontarios-COVID-19-Triage-Protocol-PDF.pdf

TRIAGE SCHOOLING aptly captures the mechanisms of systemic racism, in which ethnic minorities receive lower priority. In healthcare, this has long been an area of concern: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/25/upshot/doctors-and-racial-bias-still-a-long-way-to-go.html

Schooling will never be commensurable with healthcare or war. The mandate of public schooling in particular extends the benefits of well-resourced families who *will* educate their children in any case, to those unable to access education.

We must prioritize students with the highest needs because they are under the greatest threat of falling behind. To do so does not exclude well-resourced students who will learn anyway; to do so provides resources where there are none.

THIS is public education.

So to TRASH with this op-ed, ref. equity-based approaches as "ingrained and practised policy nostrums." EQUITY is not "all or nothing." Equity prioritizes the vulnerable in a system that threatens "death" under barbarous prescriptions of triage schooling. https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/bennett-e-learning-has-arrived-by-default-thanks-to-covid-19-what-will-the-impact-be/