A statement from SOS Alberta:

Following this afternoon’s announcement that Alberta K-12 students will return to in-person classes January 11th, Support Our Students Alberta is extremely concerned about the actual sustainability of learning,

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and concerned for the health and safety of students and education workers in the coming weeks. Despite having 6 weeks to plan, Premier Kenney failed to announce much-needed resources to maintain school stability in the current pandemic context.

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Given this, we believe this decision is politically biased, and fails to properly centre the real needs of students (physical, mental, developmental) for sustained, safe learning, while sending them back without sufficient risk mitigation.

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Kenney did not use the time since Nov 30 when Gr 7-12 went online to prepare an evidence-based plan to avoid the roller coaster of quarantines, contact tracing collapse, and escalation of school cases we witnessed in the fall.

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The lack of adequate transparency of school cases and in-school transmission data to the public have bred a high level of general distrust and confusion in this announcement.

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This announcement, lacking in vision and preparedness, is another example of undisciplined policy making that erodes public trust in Kenney’s ability to protect students & provide safe learning environments.

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