by Ben Powless
Pandemic While some returned home, hundreds of Cree students stayed south to study
W
hen the coronavirus hit and travel restrictions began this spring, hundreds of Cree students were already out of the communities in schools, Cégeps, colleges and universities across the south. The Cree School Board (CSB) has continued to support these students – and their dependents – throughout this tough time. The Nation talked with Pauline Trapper-Hester, Director of Post-Secondary Student
14 the Nation July 17, 2020 www.nationnews.ca
Services for the CSB, to find out how those students are doing. “We did a survey in the midst of the pandemic where we asked students to see how they were doing and follow up on their well-being,” Trapper-Hester explained. “Most said that because of safety reasons they wanted to stay where they were, many also mentioned concerns about housing shortages, and they didn’t want to risk any transmis-
sion of Covid back into the communities.” The CSB offices tracks where students are and if they’re staying down south or returning to Eeyou Istchee. At the beginning of the Winter 2020 term, 385 students were registered for post-secondary studies down south, along with 277 dependents – usually their children. Of that, 177 decided to return home when Covid hit, either because they were
