Burnaby school board expands mask mandate to include K-3 students

Another school district in Metro Vancouver has mandated masks for students across all grades, becoming the third district in B.C. to do so in the absence of a provincewide order for kindergarten to Grade 3.

The Burnaby School Board said its trustees unanimously decided to expand the mandate to include younger students in its mask mandate starting Monday, meaning all students from kindergarten to Grade 12 must wear a mask in class and other indoor areas.

Fraser Health's medical officer met with trustees ahead of a special meeting Thursday, the board said in a statement.

"The board is grateful to Fraser Health's medical officer for meeting on an urgent basis yesterday evening. Her assurance that masks are an effective layer of protection for all students when used in concert with other health and safety measures informed the board's decision to promptly implement this new mask requirement for K-3 students," the statement read.

B.C.'s two largest school districts, Surrey and Vancouver, made the same decision earlier this week. 

The Surrey Board of Education made the announcement Wednesday, while the Vancouver School Board came to the same agreement Monday.

The province has made masks a requirement for students in Grade 4 and up.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has resisted calls by parents and teachers to make the face coverings mandatory for all students, saying ventilation and limitations on intermingling between classes in different grades are also important factors in schools.

Henry said Tuesday that more children between the ages of five and 11 are being diagnosed with COVID-19 in the eastern Fraser Health region because they are not eligible for vaccines and due to the lower vaccination rates in at least four communities there.

Advocates call on other districts to follow suit

Kyenta Martins, who speaks for parent-led group Safe Schools Coalition B.C., said a rise in cases should prompt a provincewide mask mandate for all children if the goal is to keep students learning in schools.

"We're asking for better remote learning for those who are not able to enter the classroom,'' she said. "We're asking for rapid testing. And we are continuing to ask for transparency and data because the data that they're putting on the website is not accurate.''

The province recorded 813 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, along with 11 more deaths, for a total of 1,953 fatalities. 

Henry has dismissed rapid testing as unreliable, including for residents of long-term care facilities earlier in the pandemic, and said Tuesday that regional health authorities would be posting potential exposures of COVID-19 at schools on their websites so parents have an authoritative source of information.

"It takes time for public health to be notified of a positive lab test and to do that important case investigation to understand what settings people were in, where they could have picked it up and where they could potentially transmit it to others,'' she said.

The B.C. Teachers' Federation pushed for a mask mandate for months before Henry implemented it last March. 

The union's president, Teri Mooring, said Wednesday there's no acceptable rationale for not extending it now to younger grades.

"We'd like other school boards to follow suit with what the Vancouver School Board did,'' she said. "The trustees have ultimate responsibility to make sure that schools are healthy and safe spaces.''

Officials in Surrey noted section 13 of the public health order on masks amended this week states, "nothing in this order prevents an operator, school or post-secondary institution from having additional requirements in relation to face coverings."

The New Westminster School Board is convening a special meeting to discuss the matter on Friday.