Lethbridge residents protest back-to-school plan

Some in the community are not happy with the government’s plans and gathered outside the office of Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf for a protest. Neudorf’s office was closed today, and at the time of publication, LNN was not able to get a hold of him or his staff for comments.

Champion Leader for Safe September Alberta Karla Carcamo says the protest in Lethbridge was one of many happening across Alberta.

“There are parents who are worried for their childrens’ safety and their safety as well and community safety, so I thought it was important to bring that to Nathan Neudorf’s attention.”

The Safe September Alberta group has a few asks that they would like the province to address, including capping class sizes at 15 students to ensure proper physical distancing, re-hiring the 20,000 educational assistants that were laid off back in March, and providing additional funding to support students with disabilities.

Jayne Werry attended the protest along with her six-year-old son Sam. They brought a chalkboard sign with Sam’s name on it that says, “I am completely incapable of physical distancing.”

“He’s a six-year-old. He’s not good at keeping his hands to himself, he is not good at staying far away from people. You just can’t expect that out of kids his age.”

Werry is also concerned for her daughter who will be entering grade four this year, saying that she will likely struggle to keep her face mask on all day throughout the entire school year.

She has reached out to her school board to ask some of the many questions she has about the upcoming school year. She told LNN that they were not able to say what class sizes she could reasonably expect, how much time her children would be spending outdoors, nor how available classroom space will be utilized.

Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips, a member of the opposition NDP, attended the protest to show her support for families and her concerns with the current UCP plan.

Phillips claims the government “sat on their hands” for the last six months and that Finance Minister Travis Toews has found “billions of dollars for tax cuts for the wealthy, for other pet projects – he has found nothing for schools.”

She will be sending her children to school in-person this fall but says that does not excuse the lack of a proper plan being in place.

“Every community is probably going to be different, that’s why it takes six months to get the job done – because there’s rural communities, there’s smaller ones like ours, there’s different kinds of school boards, there’s different faith-based ways children are learning in school.”

“That’s why you needed to get to work on March 17 when we canceled classes, not wake up on August 20 and go, oh, maybe we should do something.”

Earlier this week, the Alberta Teachers’ Association call for the start of classes to be delayed so all of the proper safety measures and funding could be in place.

Following the protest, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange put out a statement, saying that school boards can individually decide if they want to delay the start of classes.

by David Opinko

Lethbridge residents protest back-to-school plan

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