The local president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation believes overcrowded classrooms may be to blame for the latest COVID-19 outbreak at St. Joseph's Catholic High School in Windsor.
Erin Roy heads up District 9 and says teachers' unions asked the province for smaller class sizes at the secondary level, but the number remains at 32 students per room — increasing the potential for the virus to spread.
Roy says it's just not a good situation.
"We have everybody back, however they didn't add any extra funding for extra classes. So our class size maximum is 32. So you have 32 close to adult bodies in a room with a teacher and they're there for two periods in a row. It's kind of like being on an airplane right?"
She says ventilation is not the best in some of the older schools either.
"We have to recognize in Ontario that we have aging schools and where they can't do that ventilation work they're adding in filtration systems in classrooms and things like that, but nothing is going to be perfect," she continued. "Especially when you have a classroom with over 30 kids in it, it's just not going to be perfect."
Roy says is urging anyone feeling sick to stay home.
"If there's anything that comes up, maybe just be on the cautious side and don't go in that day to see if it worsens over the day because we're trying to mitigate and trying to keep schools open. Everyone was kind of hopeful at the beginning of the school year, but we're just going to have to see how this evolves. Nobody wants to be back online, but unfortunately for those St. Joe's students they're already there," Roy said.
On Wednesday, the local health unit declared an outbreak of COVID-19 at St. Joseph's after five positive cases were identified — an outbreak is declared when two or more cases are identified within a 14-day period.
The school is closed and all students have been shifted to virtual learning until further notice.