JQ's Story

I am so appalled at the state the government & public health has left us in.

We were told, for so many months, that we had to asses our own risk. Then they removed all of the data we could use to assess our own risk. They also removed masking requirements and did not allow parents to switch their child from an in-person to a virtual environment once we felt the risks were too high.

I’ve pulled my child out of school entirely. I’m alternately addressing her education since the school boards, public health & government have abandoned us and failed to provide even the basic responsibilities of keeping children safe at school. Schools have a duty to protect children from communicable diseases, yet they seem to be doing the opposite.

My mother is a diabetic and my father has health issues; we had to make the decision to pull my child from school because my support network (my mom and dad) are vulnerable, and a Covid infection could do serious harm to them. I also have a second child, younger than my school-aged child, who was ineligible for vaccination for a significantly long period of time after my <12 child was approved.

It’s not fair for parents to be put in the position of having to decide between their child’s health (And the health of their immediate family, who the child could also infect with an illness) and the benefits of in-person education. It’s unacceptable.

Public health, government & school boards have to do the basic things that science is saying work – improve school air quality and enforce high-quality masking by providing N95s to all in schools & health environments.

I still shake my head at the fact that the schools follow the guidelines around communicable diseases regarding headlice and ringworm (all parents get notified when there’s a case!) but not when it comes to Covid. I’d take headlice a hundred times over 1 case of Covid – yet there are no protections for my child in the classroom.

This is causing so much stress for myself, my family, and my child.