The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all of us to stay strong and resilient while facing so many unknowns - contagion, risk of harm, variants, increased transmission, single mask, double mask, surgical mask! - many of these factors changing daily!

We have asked our kids to be brave in the face of all this. To go to school while those of us who can stay home. Stay isolated. Limit contacts. All to limit our kids exposure and give them some sense of normalcy.

This year we start the school year with nothing more than basic public health measures - masking and handwashing, maybe some classroom air filters and open windows. There are no pandemic limits on class sizes and distancing is not really possible in most classrooms. And kids under 12 can't get vaccinated.

Three weeks into the school year and we're already seeing cases among unvaccinated kids explode - through no fault of their own. At my school in Etobicoke, case counts are already almost 7 times higher than the community!

The TCDSB now wants to re-organize classes to maximize efficiencies. All while our kids have finally settled in to the school year. And all while so many of them are now dealing with COVID cases and isolation for the first time. Many are scared. Haven't our kids been through enough?

Classroom reorganizations now threaten what little safety and stability classroom cohorts may have finally established. They introduce more risk and uncertainty and stress on our kids. They are not safe. Not now.

Please sign this petition to tell the TCDSB to stop classroom reorganizations for the 2021/2022 school year.