I’ve been thinking a lot about the @SickKidsNews report on schools re-opening in Ontario and the response to that report. For me, what is so jarring about the report is the lack of nuance or acknowledgement of complexity in the recommendations. 1/

Throughout, there is mention of uncertainty around many of the aspects of a safe return to school and the appropriate mitigation efforts, but the general approach seems to be, ‘we don’t really know, so let’s stick to the status quo’. 2/

This is problematic for several reasons. First it assumes the status quo is good. I’m not an educator but I suspect many would say that there’s room for improvement. 3/

Second, it seems to point to a failure of imagination. If we really don’t know, let’s learn more. 4/

Or at the very least, let’s do some scenario planning to understand how things might unfold under best- and worst-case assumptions and determine the sorts measures we would need to address these potential scenarios. 5/

Third, we are not flying blind here. We can look around, see what other places are doing, and learn from them. Sure, current conditions in Ontario schools may limit the actions we can adopt, but we should at least start by considering the experiences of others. 6/

One thing that has happened a lot during Ontario’s pandemic response is compartmentalization: we seem to have a hard time realizing that different parts of society are connected. Spread happening in our communities is brought into LTC homes and other settings. 7/

Transmission in schools will bring disease into our homes. As many of us are learning as we think about expanding our bubbles, social networks are messy and complicated, and viruses don’t respect the artificial walls that we build between different parts of our communities. /8

I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t want kids to return to school this fall. We have time right now to plan how to do this properly, in a way that learns from others and considers how we protect the health and safety of everyone. 9/

My fear is that if we stick with the status quo, we can predict what happens this fall: as soon as COVID-19 activity picks up, we’re back in a lockdown situation. There’s lot we can do now to prevent this from happening. /10

I hope this report serves as jumping off point for richer discussions and planning and does not serve as a road map for what we should do. And I hope that this discussion involves those with a diversity of experiences and expertise. /end