DEER LAKE, N.L. — Even before the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District announced it was closing Elwood Elementary for two days, some parents in Deer Lake had already made the decision to not send their children to school.
Deer Lake is in the midst of an outbreak of COVID-19 that includes a cluster of cases, with a total of 10 active cases now in the Western region.
On Sunday the school district said it had no intention of closing schools, but that changed on Monday morning when it was announced that a student at the elementary school had tested positive for COVID-19 and the school would be closed as contact tracing and testing of contacts took place.
Victoria Kavanagh has a son at Xavier Junior High and a daughter in Grade 3 at Elwood Elementary. Her daughter has respiratory issues.
Kavanagh also has a nine-month-old and is around her grandparents all the time, so she’s not taking any chances and decided over the weekend to not send either of her children to school on Monday.
On Monday afternoon, she said neither of them would go to school for the next while and it was a decision she made out of common sense.
“There’s too much at risk right now and I don’t feel like there’s going to be harm to my children by keeping them out, versus the possible harm by sending them within the next week or two," she said.
“What are they not going to learn in a week compared to the possible circumstances of sending them when we don’t know who has this virus in our schools.”
Kavanagh questioned the decision not to close schools longer.
“You’re not allowed to go into Tim Hortons and buy a coffee, they’ve got it all roped off, but yet we can send our children to school, classes of what, 20 plus, and then hundreds out around touching the door handles and the bathroom faucets. It blows my mind.”
There are people who are working from home because they can’t go to work, but children can go to school, she said.
“It only takes a spark to start a fire and in my opinion there’s one already started, but we just need to contain that fire by not letting it spread.”
She said efforts by the town, organizations and businesses to close or reduce the numbers of people who can attend them will help.
“It will keep the spread down. The least amount of business or facilities that people are going to be going to or gathering at, that’s what’s going to cut down our chances of spread.”
Amy Rubia is also keeping her children home from school. She has a son at the junior high and a daughter at Elwood High School, which is attached to the elementary school but will remain open.
Rubia’s parents have health issues. Her mother has battled pancreatic and lung cancer. Rubia says she herself might be able to fight off COVID-19, but she fears it would not be that simple for her mother.
Rubia said she is livid that the elementary school is going to be closed for only two days.
“I absolutely do not think that’s enough.”
She said they don’t know how many children have come in contact with the positive cases and there hasn’t been enough time to confirm this is the end of it.
Rubia also questioned the logic of people not being able to go into Tim Hortons or having to wait in a line because it’s not safe to be in a store with 20 people, but children can go to school.
“Why should a couple of hundred innocent children be put in a building where we know cases were, where it’s been confirmed? I just don’t see how anybody can do that and be thinking rationally," she said.
“My children will not be going for the next couple of weeks. I’ll do schooling at home with them if I have to, but I want to see myself that the cases that they get, get well and that there’s not going to be another big amount of cases in the next couple of weeks.
“It’s not worth it to me.”
Diane Crocker reports on west coast news.
