Last week, students from Lakes District Secondary School in Burns Lake gathered inside the school for an anti-mask protest.
The students, who were all from different cohorts and grades, came together for the sit-in protest on Mar. 5 from 9:10 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. to register their stand against masks in school environments. A student told Lakes District News that while this was a peaceful protest, planned in advance, they were still having to go class-to-class to let them know about this protest.
Some students were afraid of the consequences while some others were completely against the anti-mask idea.
The students from the protest had a wide-range of concerns when it came to the school’s mask policy. One of their biggest issues with wearing masks was that they were having to wear masks even while doing physical activity in gym class which makes it difficult to breathe properly or play efficiently, according to the kids.
They handed out flyers and information sheets on why they thought masks were not appropriate for kids in schools.
Earlier in February, the School District 91 (SD 91) released their enhanced guidelines around masks after the Feb. 4 provincial announcement making masks mandatory in schools.
All schools under SD 91 will follow a set of guidelines posted on the school district’s website that include all K – 12 staff in schools and all students in middle and secondary schools would have to wear nonmedical masks in all indoor areas, even when they are in their learning groups.
The students protesting at the anti-mask sit-in were however against this policy and are hoping the school would go back to the old mask rules where masks were not mandatory but recommended when social distancing was not possible.
Despite the SD 91 guidelines and the provincial mandate on masks, the school allowed the students to peacefully protest on school premises. Lakes District News asked the school district as to the rationale behind the school allowing a protest on school premises that went against the provincial mandate or whether there would be any consequences, but we received no response by press time.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
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