Families at two West Vancouver schools have received notices over the weekend of possible COVID-19 exposures.
Students in about half of the classes at Irwin Park Elementary School have been notified that their children were exposed to a person with the virus Nov. 9 and 10.
Letters went out from Vancouver Coastal Health to parents of nine different classes in the school but there was no information about whether the COVID-19 exposure resulted from one person or more than one.
Different classes at the school appear to have been exposed on different days, which would be consistent with a staff member, such as a specialist teacher or support worker who had contact with numerous different classes, being the source of the potential exposure.
Parents of a Grade 6 band class at West Vancouver’s Ecole Pauline Johnson also received a notice of a potential COVID-19 exposure on Nov. 9 last week.
It’s the second notice of a COVID-19 exposure at Pauline Johnson, where students in a grade 4/5 class were notified of an earlier exposure Oct. 14 and 15. Irwin Park was one of the first schools on the North Shore to report a COVID-19 exposure during the first wave of the pandemic in mid March.
In North Vancouver, parents at Lynnmour Elementary school have been notified of an exposure in a Grade 5/6 class on Nov. 3 and 4 and in a Grade 6 class on Nov. 6. Carson Graham Secondary reported COVID-19 exposures Oct. 29 and 30 and Nov. 2 to 6. Saint Pius X Elementary private school reported a potential school exposure Nov. 2 and 3.
Coralynn Gehl, a West Vancouver mom who runs a local Facebook page listing COVID-19 exposure information for the North Shore, said she remains unimpressed with the way information is being handled by local health and school authorities.
“It’s shocking to me that they think it’s ok to send out nine exposure letters (for one school, Irwin Park) in 24 hours and not expect people to panic,” she said. Gehl said if parents knew the exposures had all come from one person and it was low risk it would put their minds at ease.
Without that, some parents have been musing publicly about keeping their kids home for a few days, she said.
Official advice for parents has been to simply monitor for symptoms.
But parents don’t necessarily trust that they’re getting all the information they need in a timely manner, she said.
Recently for instance, families of Division 6 at West Bay Elementary received a notice from the school district of a COVID-19 exposure that that happened Oct. 27 to 29. But that notice didn’t go out until two weeks later – Nov. 12. It also never appeared on Vancouver Coastal Health’s official list of COVID-19 school exposures.
In contrast, said Gehl, parents in Toronto can just go to the school board website and see how many students and staff in any particular school have tested positive.
She added a recent pre-recorded question and answer session between superintendents for North and West Vancouver school districts and the North Shore’s medical health officer didn’t allow parents a chance to directly participate with questions. “There was no back and forth,” she said. “They are completely invested in one-way communication.”
