Bowden Grandview School. (Google Street View)

By Alessia Proietti

PART OF PROVINCE-WIDE WALKOUT

Bowden Grandview School one of many with students protesting mask mandates

Feb 4, 2022 | 5:06 PM

A group of students at Bowden Grandview School protested against mask mandates this week, and there are reports of other schools doing so around the province on Friday.

The incident began Wednesday when eight to ten students in grades five to eight refused to wear masks, according to Chinook’s Edge School Division Superintendent, Kurt Sacher.

Sacher says students were told they’d need to go home if they didn’t want to follow regulations, and that they could wait in the school’s entranceway, also referred to as the boot-room, where boots and coats were kept.

Currently in Alberta, masking is mandatory in schools for Grades 4 and up, plus staff and teachers in all grades.

The following day (Thursday), the number of students protesting increased to roughly a dozen, says Sacher. Students were directed once again to wait in the boot-room so parents could pick them up.

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Word spread quickly on social media, however, claiming students were unable to leave the premises.

“The social media storytelling has created a story that they were locked in a broom closet in the school. There’s a lot of energy on this whole topic,” Sacher told rdnewsNOW on Friday.

Another post included a video with two students claiming the temperature in the room was kept above 30 degrees Celsius, allegedly causing one student to vomit. Sacher says that claim is false.

Sacher says the doors to the boot-room were unlocked and at times left ajar for air circulation, adding that students were appropriately supervised by a teacher at all times. Students seemed comfortable, he says, as they socialized and used their phones to pass the time.

The superintendent also notes that various parents supported their children’s initiative, with some standing watch outside the school.

Arguments made by some students and parents on social media included that they wanted to stay in the school to show they were there and willing to learn, but they did not want to wear the masks any longer.

“We appreciate people’s right to protest; we just… we don’t feel that the school is appropriate,” he says.

Sacher says misinformation has caused some teachers to receive inappropriate threats over social media, and from people in different provinces. RCMP officers were called to the scene as a result, he confirms.

The school reverted back to online learning for Friday and Monday classes until a plan could be established on how to proceed if the situation arises again.

“The overwhelming majority of students were learning face to face, and are doing quite well in school, so we want to get back to that as soon as possible,” says Sacher, adding that staff are also following the provincial mandates.

The protest in Bowden comes as part of a province-wide school walkout campaign created by a Grade 10 Drayton Valley student which was to take place on Friday at noon. Other walkouts have been seen in Bonnyville, Whitecourt and Dunmore. among others.

On his Twitter account, Alberta Teachers’ Association President, Jason Schilling, remarked that, “Reports of protests at schools is simply unacceptable. The mandates, whether you like them or not, are a decision of government not individual teachers.”

He also tagged Premier Jason Kenney and Education Minister Adriana LaGrange asking them to respond.

rdnewsNOW reached out to parents of students involved, but did not hear back by deadline.