Ontario Teachers' union says parents don't want to send their kids to school, but surveys say otherwise

The union representing over 70,000 elementary school workers says that parents are not confident that their children will remain safe in schools during a pandemic, and that they are sending them to school because they have no other choice.

The union said this despite a Toronto District School Board survey that showed that 70 percent of parents are opting to send their students to receive in-class learning. In secondary schools, parents were more confident, with 79 percent saying their children would attend school in-class rather than taking the virtual route.

The Toronto District School Board had projected that 80 percent of parents would send their students to class, according to CP24.

The situation has quickly become politicized, as Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario President Sam Hammond appeared at an Andrea Horwath press conference to voice his concerns about the lack of physical distancing in classrooms.

“I would suggest to you that many of those parents don’t have an option. They don’t have an option to stay home when they need to be at work,” said Hammond. “You would have a higher rate I think if parents actually had confidence in the plan, if you want to call it that, and we just don’t’ see that.”

“I am just not sure that you can make a blanket statement that in Toronto 70 per cent of parents are coming back and comfortable,” he said. “I absolutely don’t agree with that and I think there is a lot more going on.”

The sentiment has also been shared by Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation President Harvey Bischof.

Bischof's comments sparked a war of words between Premier Doug Ford and the teachers union, with Ford saying at yesterday's press conference that he would be taking the advice of medical experts rather than someone “with a degree in English literature who thinks he is a doctor.”

“I will listen to the docs and the health and science all day long as opposed to some head of the teacher’s union that has his degree in English literature as Harvey does,” Ford said. “I think the parents would rather us listen to the doctors as opposed to some guy with a degree in English literature who thinks he is a doctor.”