Mandatory masks on buses for
all students
December 3, 2020
Elementary students in Junior
Kindergarten to Grade 3 will now have to wear a face mask when they ride the
bus to school.
The Board Directors of the
Windsor-Essex Student Transportation Services (WESTS) recently approved a
motion to establish a new protocol mandating that all students, regardless of
what grade they are in, will have to wear a mask when riding any board-provided
transportation.
The motion says the new
protocol goes into effect immediately, but includes a transition period until
full enforcement on January 1, 2021.
Until now, students in JK to
Grade 3 had been exempt from any requirement to wear a face mask while riding a
school bus, in keeping with guidelines from the provincial government which
state that face coverings are not mandatory for students in those grades while
they are in school.
“We understand that it may take
some time for students and their families to implement the new requirement,”
said Gabrielle McMillan, General Manager of WESTS. “Beginning in the new year,
children will not be able to board the bus unless they are wearing a face mask.
However, we know that many of these students are already wearing masks and
expect that they will begin complying with the new protocol sooner rather than
later.”
WESTS is a consortium formed by
the school boards, to manage and administer student transportation. Its bus
operators provide transportation services to the Greater Essex County District
School Board, the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, Conseil
scolaire Viamonde and Conseil scolaire Catholique Providence.