By Hunter Cresswell
Following just one week of elementary schools being back in session in the Gatineau Hills, two students have been pulled from class because of COVID-19 concerns.
A l’Orée-des-Bois Elementary School student in Cantley tested positive for COVID-19, the Commission scolaire des Draveurs stated in a May 16 press release. That same student was pulled from the school on May 11, the first day back, after the school board learned that someone they live with tested positive for COVID-19.
“Following an assessment by public health, the risk that other students in the class are infected is considered weak and they may continue to attend school,” the release, translated from French, states.
During that same week, a student was pulled from Lord Aylmer School in Gatineau after they displayed COVID-19 symptoms, according to a May 13 letter to parents signed by principal Eldon Keon. The student was isolated per Quebec public health recommendations while their parents were contacted to pick up the child and take them home.
“The parents will follow the procedures recommended by public health and will not send their child to school until the prescribed time, in this case, 24 hours after the clearing of symptoms,” Keon stated in the release.
Schools across Quebec stopped holding in-person classes in mid-March due to concerns about the spreading pandemic but most elementary schools opened again on the week of May 11.