Some parents say students in Ontario received ill-fitted masks upon return to schools

TORONTO - Some dad and mom in Ontario are elevating issues concerning the three-ply material masks their kids acquired from faculties this week, saying the masks are too massive and never protecting sufficient in opposition to the highly-contagious Omicron variant.

The provincial authorities stated it could be offering college employees with N95 masks and college students with three-ply material masks as in-person studying resumed this week.

A spokeswoman stated the province sends a mixture of sizes to boards, which have the pliability to position various orders for the sizes their college students want. A number of boards stated the masks they acquired have been too massive for some younger kids and stated they have been engaged on addressing the problem.

In Guelph, Ont., Nathan Poulton stated his two children - aged 4 and 6 - acquired one three-ply material masks every from college, however the masks doesn’t match his youthful son’s face effectively.

“It matches one child and … simply type of sags off the opposite child’s face,” he stated. “It's adjustable, however the dimension distinction between a four-year-old and a six-year-old’s faces is fairly massive.”

Poulton stated he just lately bought child-sized N95 masks for his children, and plans to provide them these to make use of as an alternative, since they match higher and are greater grade masks.

The Higher Grand District Faculty Board in Guelph stated the board has heard “some feedback that the masks are too massive for some college students.”

Spokeswoman Heather Loney stated college directors have been reminded “to make sure the match of the material masks and to make each effort to make sure that college students obtain an appropriately sized masks when distributed.”

The board stated it acquired the masks from the Ministry of Schooling primarily based on the enrollment numbers - kids in kindergarten acquired “baby” masks, these in Grades 1 to six acquired “youth” masks, whereas college students in Grades 7 and eight acquired “grownup” masks. The board has additionally bought extra scholar masks to make sure “available and extra dimension choices,” Loney stated.

The Durham District Faculty Board additionally stated it seen some masks shipped from the province have been “too giant for many college students” and stated it had requested smaller masks.

Within the Toronto space, Jenna Leon stated her seven-year-old daughter acquired one masks this week that was “means too massive” and referred to as the standard of it “mediocre.”

“The higher half is simply too massive to go up her nostril. The width is simply too unfastened and floppy. The ties for the ears don’t do something to tighten the masks,” she stated.

Leon stated her daughter will put on medical masksthe household bought till N95 masks she ordered arrive at their house.

“It’s so exhausting to grasp how that is layers of sturdy safety for my baby at college,” she stated of the masks her daughter acquired at a faculty within the Halton Catholic District Faculty Board.

The Halton board didn't reply to a request for remark.

Kristen Fenlon, whose two children attend a faculty within the Windsor-Essex Catholic District Faculty Board, stated the masks her kids acquired are additionally far too massive.

“I might say they’re in all probability an additional giant dimension ... they didn’t even match me,” she stated, including that her kids shall be sporting the upper grade medical masks she bought.

The Windsor-Essex Catholic District Faculty Board stated it hadn’t acquired any complaints from dad and mom and “had no enter on sizes or portions” of masks despatched by the province.

In an announcement, a spokeswoman for Schooling Minister Stephen Lecce stated the federal government sends “pro-active allocations to boards” with a mixture of sizes.

Caitlin Clark stated when boards place orders for the masks, “they've the pliability to order no matter quantity in no matter dimension they want and want for his or her scholar populations.”

“With much more shipments of various sizes on the best way, we encourage boards to work with college students to make sure they’re receiving the correct dimension choice,” she stated.

Clark famous that Ontario is following the professional recommendation of the chief medical officer of well being, Kids’s Well being Coalition and Ontario’s Science Desk “concerning PPE use to guard faculties and cut back threat for college kids and employees.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Jan. 21, 2021.

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This story was produced with the monetary help of the Fb and Canadian Press Information Fellowship.