Recent decisions made by The Toronto District School Board, The Toronto Catholic District School Board and other Ontario School Boards to impose wearing medical masks / face coverings for ALL students are aggressive towards our children. They violate our children’s educational rights (Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 23) and deprive some parents unwilling to send their children back to school in medical masks / face coverings of their choice. Online learning, especially for working parents with young students, is not an option - it is gradually making our children socially isolated and inept, among other things.    

We, the undersigned, parents and caregivers, their relatives, doctors and other related persons APPEAL to TDSB, TCDSB and other Ontario school boards having made or are considering making similar decisions to cancel mandatory medical masks / face coverings for ALL students (or at least except high-school students) as recommended by SickKids, one of the most renowned kids’ hospitals in Canada. SickKids Guidance for School Reopening (the pdf copy could be provided on demand). Together with SickKids experts, we consider the Cohorting practice to be adequate for limiting POTENTIAL spread of COVID-19 in schools.

As clearly described in SickKids recommendations, wearing masks in the school premises will do more harm than good in the long run. In addition to that: “If worn incorrectly (e.g. touched frequently, not covering mouth and nose, removed and placed back without hand hygiene), NMMs could lead to increased risk of infection.” We do believe that any person with common sense CANNOT expect children, especially younger students, to wear masks properly in the school premises throughout the day. 

We APPEAL to all school boards in Toronto and to the Government of Ontario to revise their school reopening plan by revoking their original decision to make medical masks / face coverings wearing mandatory in the school premises (or at least for students JK-Grade 8) based on SickKids experts’ recommendation. 

We strongly oppose any action to establish this plan and deprive us of any freedom of choice to exercise our parental responsibility. We call for not making medical masks / face coverings mandatory at school.

We APPEAL to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to pass the bill to take away the right of school boards to make any medical related decisions.

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If our voice is not heard by school boards until October 1st 2020, we APPEAL to the Government of Ontario to DEFUND school boards in the amount of direct and indirect expenses, related to OUR children,  and forward it to parents directly, so that any child, whose parents signed this petition or would like to make similar decision in the future, could afford the private schooling option. We literally finance school boards by paying our taxes and do not receive the appropriate service. We would like to get the compensation as direct payment on a monthly basis calculated starting from September 1, 2020.