Unlike her counterparts in Alberta, Ontario, and Nova Scotia, B.C.’s top doctor still has no plans to mandate masks when kids return to school next month.

However, Dr. Bonnie Henry says that does not mean masks do not have a role to plan in a school setting.

“We absolutely do see masks in certain aspects of schools being important particularly where adults are together and where children can’t maintain those safe distances,” she said. “We have no intention for making mandatory masks and I actually don’t believe there is evidence to support mask wearing by children in a classroom setting.”

Henry says she knows many parents are anxious about the return to school plan as concerns have been raised about grouping too many kids together in cohorts of 60 or 120.

An online petition asking the province to keep the return to the classroom optional has over 21,000 signatures since it was launched four days ago.

“We all have anxieties. We’re learning as we go with this virus,” Henry added. “But we also know that there are important things that children can only get from being in classroom settings, whether that’s full-time, all the time, or whether there’s some variety. So we are working towards that.”

She says parents, teachers, and school administrators have all been working to create the plan that was released late last month.

“Currently, we have a framework that we are confident will keep people safe, will minimize the contacts and with a larger group allow those important interactions that young people need,” Henry added, noting that people need to remember that there are downsides to not having kids in school, including increased anxiety or mental health issues.

“For some children, home is not a safe place to be. Many of them have not been in a classroom for it’ll be up to 175 days, and the type of learning that many children need in that classroom setting is something that we need to make a priority.”

She added that B.C.’s school restart plan makes physical distancing a priority, while also not committing to supporting a call from the BC Teachers Federation to delay the school start date from the current September 8, saying ‘we just need to set a date and plan for it.’

“We’re going to be in segregating different ways in different schools. That’s why I can’t be specific,” added Henry, noting the plan is not a one size fits all, with more details to be released in the near future.

“There are 60 school districts and each of them have to look at ways that they can do it with students and the numbers that they have, as well as being able to do contact tracing if we need to. We know that there’s opportunities for different types of classes that different students will need, so to be able to offer at least some variations, you have the potential that people might be in certain classes, but there’s ways of reducing that risk.”

SD73 Superintendent Alison Sidow previously told NL News the district is ironing out how to manage in-class learning for its largest high schools like Valleyview, NorKam and South Kam secondary.