SASKATOON -- Easter break is wrapping up for the majority of schools in the province and with the spread of the COVID-19 variants, some are on-edge about sending children back to school.
"I might keep them home for a couple days because honestly there are variants of concern going around," said Cori Robinson, a mother of three.
Her three boys are set to go back tomorrow to Rosetown Central High School and Harris Tessier Central School.
"People who are not paying attention and got together over Easter and their kid goes to school sick. It might take a couple of days to figure that type of thing out," she said.
On Sunday the province recorded 59 new cases of COVID-19 variants of concern (VoC), bringing the provincial total to 2,504 active cases.
"The vast majority of schools right across the province are returning to that in-class learning tomorrow," said Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) president Pat Maze. "That’s frightening, given the fact that we’ve had, exponential increase, predictably in the variant."
Maze said March 31, the STF called for the province to move all schools online after the Easter break.
"We knew that moving to online and assessing the situation for a couple of weeks so that students who have been exposed would potentially show us some symptoms and we could then isolate at home rather than coming into the school setting and infecting other students and staff," Maze told CTV News.
The STF said the decision to move the school to remote-learning was deferred to each school division. Maze believes many families weren't just staying home over the break.
"A lot of our students and parents use the easter break as a bit of a travel time. So they get together with families of course and travel out of province," Maze told CTV News.
There have been 2,271 VoCs reported in Regina and 171 in Saskatoon. Maze has had numerous teachers reach out to him to express their concerns about showing up to the classroom.
"They're telling me they're terrified."
