Walkout of one seeks to keep spotlight on school pandemic safety

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This article was published 21/03/2022 (1485 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A single student stood outside Grant Park High School despite drizzling rain Monday to protest the province’s decision to make masks optional in classrooms and no longer require people with positive COVID-19 tests to self-isolate.

“School divisions aren’t listening when we say we want these things and our provincial government isn’t listening when our community is outright saying: ‘This isn’t right.’ Even doctors are saying: ‘You need to slow down, one thing at a time for us to be able to go to this ‘new normal,’” said Brie Villeneuve, a Grade 12 student.

Villeneuve, 18, is among the teenagers who have organized under MB Students for COVID Safety — a grassroots group that formed earlier this year to call attention to safety concerns.

The group organized school walkouts across Manitoba on Jan. 17 to denounce limited pandemic protocols in K-12 buildings and the inability to participate in e-learning. Last month, organizers protested outside MLA offices to criticize the plan to rollback virtually all restrictions by March 15.

Participation has dwindled since the initial action, but Villeneuve was motivated to show up with a sign Monday to represent students who could not take time off school to participate, the 18-year-old said.

A handful of peers leaving the building around lunchtime told a reporter they were unaware a walkout was happening. At one point, shortly after 11 a.m., a student reentering the school shouted: “Thank you for your service!” to Villeneuve, who was holding a protest sign.

Joe Curnow, an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba who studies learning within social movements, said she would not dismiss the movement simply because there was only one participant. Curnow said movements often come in waves with high points and rebuilding periods, based on how winnable conditions are.

The researcher also noted how tiring it is to live in spaces of trauma, stress and isolation.

“I feel deflated and pretty helpless. My family has acted responsibly, as best as we can throughout the pandemic and have managed not to yet get COVID, and more than ever, I’m feeling it’s unavoidable and impossible — just because we don’t have enough tools anymore to protect against it,” said Shauna Labman, a mother of two elementary schoolers.

The Winnipeg parent said she feels the province lifted restrictions prematurely and both political and economic reasons played into the decision. The timing, with an upcoming spring break, makes her particularly nervous, she said.

The problem with the messaging around the importance of working together and respecting each other’s choices is it fails to recognize some people’s choices are constrained, whether they have unvaccinated children under five or underlying health conditions, Labman added.

The Winnipeg School Division estimated around 300 of its students participated in the Jan. 17 walkout. There were fewer than 500 participants downtown during the peak protest days of the so-called “freedom convoy” protest that stationed itself outside the Manitoba legislature for nearly three weeks in February.

Curnow said the provincial government has been the most attentive to the convoy protests, out of all COVID-19-related actions — a reality the researcher finds “really troubling” because its demands were not based on science.

“This government has been very insensitive, not in the emotional way, but they just haven’t been responsive to public pressure, public opinion, evidence from coming out of public health and research spaces,” she said.

Combined, the rally’s tactical innovation, race and class privilege, a limited police response, and the fact the protesters’ demands align with conservative values all contributed to its success, Curnow added.

Last month, Manitoba’s top doctor indicated he was comfortable with the removal of restrictions due to key pandemic indicators, including hospitalizations, viral load in wastewater, absenteeism, modelling and cases.

Since then, provincial officials have repeatedly indicated it is important to establish a “new normal” that relies on personal risk assessments rather than collective ones.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie