Schools ordered to stay shut, but outdoor graduations urged

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced Wednesday, June 2, that all elementary and secondary schools in Ontario would remain closed to in-person learning until September.

He also encouraged all those schools to organize outdoor graduations for all of their students, not just those in Grades 8 and 12 as usual in the past, now that the most-recent provincial “stay at home” order has expired.

He cited the risk posed by COVID-19 variants, which were considered either more contagious and/or created more severe symptoms the original strain, as the reason behind keeping classrooms shut down.

Medical and public health experts had urged him to re-open schools, he said, but they failed for the most part of answer a question on how many additional cases of COVID-19 might result from children spending hours together in classrooms every weekday.

One estimate was that the number of COVID-19 cases in Ontario would rise by 11 percent, and that was just too high for public safety, he said. “These aren’t risks I’m willing to take.”

More in the June 9 edition of The Aylmer Express.