Last spring with online teaching I technically could have been anywhere. My house, a mountain resort in BC, the east coast, or in freaking Europe. As long as I stayed on time zone I could have taught from anywhere in the world. But I didn’t. I taught from my kitchen table.

Imagine the parents of my students finding out I was teaching from my hotel room in France, or the family cabin in BC, or heck even my parents house in northern AB. There would have been OUTRAGE! I couldn’t even leave my house before 3:00 for anything.

It was made clear by my leadership that the optics of a teacher appearing in public before 3:00, even just to pick up the mail, and even if she had a prep at the end of the day and technically wasn’t teaching anymore, would be bad.

It would be seen as....pause for dramatic effect... unprofessional. As a teacher I accept that I’m held to a higher standard than the regular public. That my actions are monitored by society and I will be accountable for whatever choices I make.

It was also clear that if I travelled over the holidays my quarantine time would be at my own expense after I’d used up personal days etc. And that if I actually contracted Covid while travelling against recommendations, there was a chance my benefits wouldn’t cover me long term.

So I have stayed home. For online teaching, for the optics of it, to maintain my professional dignity, and because I know what the expectations are of the public and I adhere to them. Because that’s what the public health orders asked of me.

Do not tell me Allard’s actions are excusable. That she can play the “ask for forgiveness over permission” card. That she wasn’t “technically” breaking the law. Her actions were unprofessional and un-befitting of the office she holds in service to the Alberta people. The End.