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STUDENTS WALK OUT: New Westminster Secondary School students lie on the grass Tuesday during a “die-in” to highlight their COVID concerns.
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PHOTO CORNELIA NAYLOR
Students stage walkout over handling of COVID Julie MacLellan jmaclellan@newwestrecord.ca
It’s a stark, cold, sobering image: a group of teenagers lying dead on the lawn. A group of NewWestminster Secondary School students hopes that visual helps them to drive home their concerns over
COVID-19 and how it’s being handled in schools. The students staged a class walkoutTuesday and marched – in masked, socially distanced small groups – down to the school district administration office to say that schools need better pandemic planning in place. The protest at the dis-
trict office included speakers and a staged “die-in,” with students taking turns pretending to be dead “to kind of illustrate the consequences of what might happen if more strict safety protocols aren’t developed,” as student organizer Elena Massing explained it. The event was pre-
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planned but, coincidentally, came on the heels of the public announcement Monday that NWSS has had a COVID-19 exposure – meaning that someone in the school community has tested positive for COVID-19 and was at the school during their infectious period. It was one of two COVID-19 exposures
published for the school district; another case was also confirmed at Fraser River Middle School. Both people are now in self-isolation at home and being monitored by public health officials. Speaking to the Record Tuesday morning, Massing said the news had definitely affected students at
the school. “Everyone I feel is being extra cautious,” she said. “I think anxieties are definitely heightened. I think a lot of people are extra paranoid about things that they may be experiencing, like, ‘Oh, is this a symptom or am I just worried that I have it?’” Continued on page 3
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