A mum who is refusing to send her vulnerable son back to school in September is ‘saving every penny she has’ after the government threatened absence fines.
Jennifer Dunstan, from Sheffield, is ‘living a no frills existence’ so she can afford to boycott the ‘unsafe’ re-opening of schools and defend herself in court if need be.
As a single parent with an autoimmune disease, she is more vulnerable to catching coronavirus and fears her nine-year-old son Rio would end up in care if she died or became seriously ill.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has said it will be compulsory for all children to be back in the classroom from September and confirmed on Monday that families who don’t comply could be fined.
Jennifer, 40, branded this ‘rude and disrespectful’ but said it was a price she was willing to pay to protect her son, who has special educational needs and may not have access to the support equipment he needs next term.
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Speaking to Metro.co.uk she said: ‘I have got £2,000 saved up but could probably save £3,000 or £4,000 [by September]. That money does not compare to the value of my child and the value of him not growing up without a parent.
‘My son has everything he needs then I am having basic things and putting everything to one side. I am not having anything you would consider fancy like a bottle of wine on a Friday night, it’s a no frills existence.’
Jennifer is part of action group Boycott Return to Unsafe Schools (BRTUS), which has over 4,000 members.
Campaigners have accused the government of ‘underestimating parental instincts’, warning there are thousands of families across the country who would rather pay fines or de-register their children from school than send them back to class if the ‘R’ rate is still close to one in September.
Jennifer said: ‘If you put your child in the middle of a road and there is an oncoming car, you are responsible. If you knowingly harm your child or physically abuse them, you are responsible. So why aren’t parents responsible when it comes to putting your child in a bubble of 250 children?
‘I am a disabled lone parent. If I catch this infection or anything happens to me, my son will end up in care. If I had to self-isolate because I caught the virus, I could not send him to my parents because they are in vulnerable health.’
Jennifer’s home city is currently classed as an area of concern by Public Health England due to a rise in infection rates.
The government insist schools can reopen safely but many parents argue they should have the right to choose whether to send their children back and that the mandatory requirement is causing stress and anxiety.
There is no exception to the schools reopening plan for parents who have been shielding or are classed as more high risk due to health, age or ethnicity.
Mum-of-two Nicky Hutchinson, from Devon, said she and her 18-year-old daughter both have cancer and have been advised by doctors to continue shielding past August 1st, when the government says it can end.
Her 10-year-old son is ‘distressed’ at the thought of going back to school in case he brings the virus home to his family.
She told Metro.co.uk: ‘I know as a parent he needs to go out and be a little boy but he does not want to go back to school because he does not want to risk infecting us. He knows we are at risk and have been told to continue shielding.
‘He does miss his friends and playing football but if he brings the virus home that is something he will never recover from. The government are not thinking about how children will cope. There is no easy choice for a parent to make.’
The mandatory rule applies even to children with special educational needs, despite Gavin Williamson removing the legal requirement for local authorities to fulfil support stated on their Education Health Care plans.
It is unclear if this will be reinstated in September because of the risk of the virus transmission on surfaces.
Jennifer said her son Rio, who has Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), will be more prone to meltdowns without access to soft toys and blankets at school and would be safer at home.
‘He [Gavin Williamson] is forcing me to send my son to a school that does not need to provide anything and he is threatening to fine me if I don’t,’ she said.
‘Everybody should have a choice, all parents and each family should have the right to make up their own minds. There are families from ethnic minority backgrounds in the group who are more at risk and people who live with older relatives.
‘You can tell these decisions are being made by childless men or men who have nannies and au pairs. They live in a completely different world to working class people.’
Research published today found school time lost because of the pandemic could hurt the the UK economy for 65 years, with disruption to lessons having a long-term impact on the skills of the future workforce.
Parents in the BRTUS group say they want their children back in education but don’t feel that the government’s plan is safe or sustainable.
Pupils will not have to social distance when schools reopen as class sizes and year groups will be classed as ‘bubbles’. However, teachers have said it would be ‘mind-boggling’ to try to keep groups of children apart all day.
Measures set out in the school guidance
- Teachers distancing from each other and older students where possible
- Increasing frequency of cleaning
- Reducing the use of shared items
- Attempting not to share rooms and spaces as much as possible
- Minimising contact in corridors
- Staggering start, finish and break times for classes and year groups
- Limiting items brought into school to the essentials
- Avoid mixing class groups in canteens, playgrounds and school assemblies
The full guidance can be found on the UK Government website.
Although the risk of young people catching coronavirus is low, there are fears schools reopening could lead to outbreaks because asymptomatic pupils could unknowingly pass on the disease to staff, parents and elderly relatives.
There have been conflicting reports about how likely children are to spread the virus.. The government’s chief pandemic modeller, Professor Graham Medley, has said children are not playing a key role in transmitting the disease.
However, a study from South Korea last week said while children younger than 10 transmit to others much less often than adults do, the risk is not zero and those between the ages of 10 and 19 can spread the virus at least as well as adults do.
Mum-of-two Gemma Sewell, who lives in Essex, criticised the government for scrapping plans to use community buildings for teaching so bubbles could be smaller and said she would feel more comfortable with schools reopening part-time.
She is worried about her 10-year-old daughter Sophie catching the virus and passing it onto her elderly grandmother, who is in their family’s social bubble.
She called for a more ‘flexible’ approach to learning, such as mixing some days in school with online classes.
Gemma told Metro.co.uk: ‘Unless the government changes how this is being done, if I am put in a position where I have to pay a fine then that is what I will have to do.
‘Ultimately parents are responsible for their children’s safety, that parental instinct is being massively underestimated. Lots of parents are worried about fines because they can’t afford it, so they are thinking of de-registering their children.’
The government has promised to make sure testing is readily available when there are suspected outbreaks at schools so that teachers, parents and students can feel confident about returning to classrooms.
It has provided a £1 billion catch-up package to help with this, particularly for disadvantaged pupils who they say have been the worst affected by school closures.
The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.
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