A trustee with the Greater Essex County District School Board applauding the local health unit's move to begin work on resuming extracurricular activities.
Alan Halberstadt made a motion Tuesday calling for extracurriculars to be restored, the health unit then met with schools boards on Wednesday and, on Thursday, announced boards could begin drafting policies for extracurricular activities for fully vaccinated students.
Halberstadt says time is of the essence.
"The one problem is some of these leagues, notably football leagues, are running out of time with regard to getting a schedule together. They've got to get enough coaches with coaching certificates and then there's a protocol for how many practices they have to have. So that's going to delay things."
He feels getting a policy in place is well overdue.
"I think sports have been kind of cast aside. To be honest, I think it's been made to be a scapegoat for the whole health unit process. A lot of other sporting organizations have been well underway. They don't seem to be held up by any government body."
Halberstadt says kids need their after school activities.
"We've been hearing about it, the mental aspect of playing sports is very strong. Especially since the kids, some up the two years, have not been able to do anything like this and it's very tough mentally, and that's been proven."
Halberstadt believes, if a policy is put in place, it may push more youth to get vaccinated as well.
Before the new school year began, the local health unit issued a recommendation all extracurriculars be delayed until at least October to help curb the spread of COVID-19.