On International Day of Education, Doug Ford still leaving parents in the dark and cutting corners on school safety

January 24, 2022

TORONTO — Mike Schreiner made the following statement on the International Day of Education:

“On the International Day of Education, I want to thank educators and staff for keeping kids learning during the pandemic. It’s been a very difficult two years, filled with uncertainty and anxiety for parents, students and education workers.

We would have hoped that by now the Ford government would have prioritized our schools and learned from the lessons of the pandemic. But instead, Ontario is going backwards.

That’s why I’m calling on Doug Ford to stop keeping parents in the dark and taking shortcuts on protecting our kids.

Baggy, ineffective masks that don’t fit, silencing information on outbreaks and a refusal to acknowledge that COVID-19 is airborne is not what Ontario families deserve.

I’m calling on the Ford government to:

• Implement a province-wide database on safe school statistics
• Publicly acknowledge that COVID-19 is airborne and implement airborne measures
• Mandate vaccines for educators and add COVID-19 to the existing list of compulsory immunizations required for students
• Make student mental health a top priority as kids return to classes, including funding $150 million per year to shorten youth mental health wait times to maximum 30 days”

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