Excitement, apprehension for B.C. students returning to class

When students in British Columbia go back to the classroom this week, there's all the normal back-to-school anticipation and jitters — plus a little more. 

For some, it will have been six months since they last entered the building.

"I'm pretty excited because I haven't been at school for a long time now," said Emmett Thompson, 11, who will be attending middle school in Victoria.

Thompson did not participate in B.C.'s voluntary return to class in June, and so he'll be seeing a few friends "that I have not seen for a really long time."

This week, thousands of students will return to a very different classroom because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

B.C.'s back-to-school plan includes in-class instruction with a number of new public health measures in place. These include students being divided into learning groups, the size of which depends on their grade level. The groups may have staggered start times and staggered breaks, all with the intention of reducing the number of people coming into contact with one another. 

Though masks are not mandatory in the classroom, older students are supposed to use them in high-traffic areas when they cannot physically distance. 

Clare Mount, 14, a Grade 10 student in Oak Bay, says while everyone's situation is different when it comes to mask-wearing, she'll be wearing one. 

"I'm going to be wearing a mask because I think it will be really hard to have have 20-plus kids in a classroom and have [them] socially distanced, especially in hallways and things like that," she said. 

Mount's school is also working on a different schedule this year to accommodate the learning cohort model. Instead of students taking eight courses throughout the year, they'll be in a quarterly semester system where they'll take two subjects a day for 10 weeks, before switching to the next two subjects.

"I think that it will be good because then kids don't have to balance eight classes at once, but I think it might be a bit stressful having to fit a year's curriculum into only 10 weeks," she said.

B.C.'s back-to-school plan has been the subject of a lot of criticism from teachers and parents, some of whom have pointed out B.C.'s rising coronavirus caseload as a reason to slow down the school return. Many have called for more online and hybrid learning options to be included to accommodate different families' needs. 

At a news conference Tuesday, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the unintended consequences of losing in-class instruction are immense and B.C. will not consider delaying the start of school.

"If we do not put our priority as a community on getting children back into the school setting and getting their education, their learning, their social interactions back together, we will have long-term, generational downsides to that.''

Despite rising case numbers, community transmission rates remain low in B.C. and that's the most important factor when it comes to making sure schools can operate safely, Henry added.

Grace Sinats, 14, of Saanich, has decided to do the online school option because she lives with her grandparents, who are both immunocompromised.

Sinats says she's been worried about what her online learning experience will look like as the instructions detailed so far have been "vague."

"I honestly have no idea what my school is going to look like, when it's going to start, and what even I am going to be doing," Sinats said. 

Choosing the online option has cut her off from a particular course that was only offered in person, as well as an important social group.

"It was really hard ... I've really been missing my school and I really loved my school community," she said. 

But knowing the risks of the virus to her grandparents, Sinats said her decision was simple.

"I don't think I can morally go back to school [knowing] I could be putting them at risk."