It is not yet a massacre but the phenomenon nevertheless worries. Last week, several children and teachers tested positive in at least four municipalities in the Oise. The most worrying case is at Plessis-Belleville where four out of eleven classes will be closed on Monday.
“We applied the protocol and closed a first class of CM2 last Monday after a teacher tested positive, explains Dominique Smaguine, mayor of the town. We also invited the parents of students in this class to test their children. “
Antigen tests in a municipal gymnasium
Measures which did not prevent the positive cases from multiplying, which forced the town to close the 2nd class of CM2, as well as the canteen and extracurricular, last Friday. The number of positive cases continuing to increase, more than 26 identified, the Academic Inspection decided this Sunday to close two new classes, a CP-CM1 and a CE2.
“The town will provide a municipal room to allow school and community staff to perform an antigen test this Monday morning,” said the Academic Inspectorate.
And this school in the south of the Oise is not the only one to be affected. From January 10, Cauffry was also concerned. Then it was at Formerie, on Monday 11, that a student and a teacher tested positive. Friday, it was the turn of a teacher from a school in Liancourt.
“As he had eaten with his colleagues, it was decided to quarantine all the teachers until next Tuesday, awaiting the results of the tests,” indicates Roger Menn, mayor of Liancourt. Parents were warned and asked to babysit their children if they had the opportunity. “
The mayor specifies that a “minimum reception service will be provided by four substitute school teachers”. For its part, the Inspectorate stresses that these positive cases “do not lead to class closure”. “These are absent teachers who must be replaced,” continues the institution.
“It would make more sense for the whole school to close”
This multiplication of cases across the department is of great concern to parents of students. “We have to be, admits Paolo Sandre, father of a student from Plessis-Belleville. My daughter is in kindergarten but she can meet children who are in primary school and potentially positive. It would make more sense for the whole school to close. “
The Rectorate recognizes an oversight in its January 14 press release
And to be surprised: “A press release from the rectorate of the Academy of Amiens indicated on January 14 the absence of a closed class in the Academy” while the union “counted several in the Oise”.
At the beginning of January, the FSU staff representatives had already denounced the fact that “the figures reported by the rectorate from November to December were up to 10 times lower than those of France Santé publique”.
Close the Plessis-Belleville school? It would not be on the agenda
Faced with these criticisms, the Academic Inspectorate recognized “an unintentional error, the report of January 14 should have mentioned a closed class” insisting on the fact that it “has no interest in embellishing the situation by concealing figures voluntarily ”.
As for the school closure, the Inspectorate recalls that it depends “on a prefectural decision taken after advice from the health authorities”. Concerning the Plessis-Belleville, it would be “not on the agenda. “