Thames Valley District School Board parents are rallying to get more HEPA filters into the boards nearly 4000 classrooms.
HEPA filters, or high efficiency particulate air filters are a type of pleated mechanical air filters. Theoretically, it can remove at least 99.97% of particulates in the air.
Several parents and trustees have organized a fundraiser to try and get more units into classrooms. So far, the campaign has raised $6,925. Each filter costs around $900.
Lyndsay Fitzgeorge, Coordinator of the Fitness and Health Promotion program at Fanshawe and organizer of the campaign, says that not everyone with immunocompromised family has the option to keep their children at home, which is why she campaigns for these filters.
“I feel strongly that society we should be doing as much as we can to to create safe spaces, so that these medically fragile people and their loved ones, they aren’t put in these hard positions.”
One of the main points Fitzgeorge stressed was that the filters would be going to the “most critical classrooms first.”
“Money isn’t allocated to one school and that is to so that schools with with more higher socio economic donors that don’t don’t fill up their school with HEPA filters before other schools that maybe don’t have those those same donors.”
The board itself will decided where the filters go, hoping to ensure equity.
Many parents are worried about their children going to school during the recent surge of infections. While schools have been claimed to be safe, Fitzgeorge believes they could be safer. “These are spaces with medically fragile people in them that either educators or students, they’re also spaces that are heavily used.”
“[Research] has demonstrated that combining HEPA filters with masks and adequate ventilation was the most effective way of removing this virus that causes COVID.”
Fitzgeorge had more to add on what the school board could be doing. She cited the Toronto boards, saying that they have HEPA filters in all of their classrooms.
“I feel that our London school boards…they should be consulting with these other boards to see how they got this initiative accomplished.” Fitzgeorge said.
“The question to the London school boards would be, if Toronto District School Board got it done, why not Thames Valley?”
More information about the campaign can be found here.
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