Dear Sir,

In September 2019, my son started at Clearwater Middle School. They were fine up until November 2019, when the staff became disgruntled about not being heard by the Ministry of Education about their concerns about possible asbestos in the building and not having proper leadership.

The school was constantly changing principals — the principal changed three times in the 2½ years my son was there. So, since 2019 the teachers were basically in a work-to-rule attitude and stopped any extracurricular activities for the school. The children were no longer able to enter the building until 8.30am and at 3.30pm must leave the building and be gone from the property by 3.45pm.

There was no choir, no drama plays, gardening club and very minimal sport. Then, of course, comes March 2020 when Covid started, but the school was already at a minimum for any activities, as the teachers were still not offering anything to the children outside of 8.30am to 3.30pm. They then cancelled everything — from sports days to Stem clubs, basically everything — and remained this way up until December 2021. I doubt anything has changed in the past month. My son no longer attends there; he left in January 2022.

The children, up until December 2021, were not allowed to go out of their classrooms and no longer changed classes for different subjects as they used to. They sat in the same class all day, and ate their lunch there, too. They no longer used the cafeteria, and the cooking staff no longer existed, but they ordered out lunch for delivery only from a nearby restaurant.

They had to line up on dots on the ground each morning — rain, blow or shine. On dots before they could enter the school building and they would not temperature-check anyone in until 8.30am, not a minute sooner!

My son and other children expressed that they felt like prisoners had more freedom than them. The masks were on all day except when they could go outside for the short time. They got maybe 30 minutes outside by the time they ate their lunch, and that was only if the weather was nice. Rainy days, obviously, they were stuck inside all day with their masks on.

I find it totally unnecessary for these children to wear masks all day. The same virus which can be transmitted through their eyes, the masks are not going to stop the virus from spreading.

It is worse, as this causes children to touch their face all day, adjusting that mask and likely causing them to catch the virus anyway.

Furthermore, what about the children that took the vaccine? Why are there no provisions made for them? The phases for the schools’ Covid rules do not even show where or when the children can remove their mask during class. Are they to wear masks for ever?

These children are together all day every day and when they leave school grounds they are no longer wearing the masks, so what is the point? If the teachers have a problem with it, then they need to either take the vaccine or wear their masks all day.

It has come to a point now that we know Covid is here to stay and the vaccine has been around for more than a year. If they haven’t already taken it, they don’t intend to, but schooling must go on.

I don’t care if my son’s teacher is vaccinated or not. It is a personal choice, but I still send my son to class.

He still got Covid from school, despite the masking, as it was the only place he had been for two weeks when he got it. No big deal — slight headache and slept for a day, which most children have experienced.

No, the mask which he wears in class all day, every day did not stop him catching Covid at school. More than half the class got it and the masks obviously do nothing to prevent it.

This just needs to stop. Going into year three of this and they have had enough.

PATRICIA BURGESS

St George’s