CORNWALL, Ontario – Trustees for the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) met on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021, for their regularly scheduled board meeting. The trustees unanimously passed a motion that will require all Kindergarten students to wear masks while at school beginning Nov. 1.
The motion was brought up by Board Chairman John McAllister, after discussing the importance of masks being worn by kindergarten students with Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, Chief Medical Officer of health for the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU).
Dr. Roumeliotis addressed the importance of masking junior kindergarten (JK) and kindergarten (K) students. The EOHU had recommended at the beginning of the school year that this be a mandatory precaution taken.
“At the beginning of the school year, I alluded to at the end of my talk about the recommendations that we added to the provincial recommendation. One of them was a very strong recommendation from our health unit to all schools, to mask JK and K students,” said Dr. Roumeliotis.
He went on to say that he has already seen mandatory masks for JK and K students being implemented in multiple French school boards.
Lisa Swan, Trustee of Ward Six, had posed a follow up question, asking if the EOHU had seen any negatives regarding the masking of JK and K students.
Dr. Roumeliotis responded by saying that although the Canadian Pediatric Society, American Pediatric Society, and the CDC were hesitant towards masking children below five years of age at the beginning of the pandemic, that over the last year, there have been no negative drawbacks to children as young as two years of age.
After slight deliberation on the report given by Dr. Roumeliotis, the motion was moved by John McAllister, as well as Vice Chairman, William MacPherson, with no debate needed, all trustees were in favour of this motion being passed.
