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By Pete McIntyre, Vernon Matters

ONLINE PETITION

Petition to keep B.C. schools closed collects thousands of names

Jan 3, 2021 | 12:47 PM

VERNON – An online campaign to have the winter break extended at B.C. schools has surpassed its original goal.

A petition to keep schools closed for another two weeks due to concerns about rising COVID-19 cases has collected almost 39,000 names as of 11 a.m. Sunday (Jan. 3).

The original target was 35,000 names.

“Covid -19 cases in B.C. have dramatically [gone] up up from about 100 new cases a day at the beginning of October to upwards of 500 new cases a day within the last week approximately,” stated the petition on change.org.

The campaign says that despite the new health measures implemented by Dr. Bonnie Henry, the number of cases are still on the rise, although in actual fact, the numbers started to stabilize in December according to the most recent updates.

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“As cases are still on the rise we are now faced with a new issue there is a new strain of Covid 19,” the petition stated. “And now more than ever we need to figure out a new plan for our schools. To be sure that it is safe for students and staff to return. We ask that Dr. Bonnie Henry extend the winter break for all BC students and make a new plan on how to safely return to school.”

“The BC ED [education] plan has not been updated to allow social distancing and have mandatory mask wearing in schools. The new covid variant is infecting children at a much higher rate according to current science in the UK,” said one commenter on the petition site.

“Cases will just end up rising even more if schools are open. We need at least a solid 1-2 weeks of no interaction as well as big gatherings of people. INCLUDING SCHOOLS,” stated another person.

Click here to find out more about the petition.

AR/PM