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This article was published 10/11/2021 (194 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
FILE
Supt. Mathew Gustafson (right) told the Sun on Tuesday that members of the Brandon School Division are no longer posting COVID-19 updates on their websites due to privacy concerns.
Brandon School Division hasn’t posted any notices about new COVID-19 cases or exposures on its website since Oct. 19, and Supt. Mathew Gustafson said that was done deliberately.
Talking to the Sun on the phone Tuesday, Gustafson revealed that the division decided to stop distributing information about new COVID cases in BSD schools to the broader community starting on Oct. 20.
While letters and notices are still being sent out to parents and school staff who are directly impacted by new COVID cases, the BSD superintendent said they opted to keep the general public out of the loop due to privacy concerns.
"In the past, we did notify [parents and staff] of a positive case to provide some kind of indication of where that exposure occurred, as well as a general notification to our greater community," Gustafson said.
"Over time, there have been concerns raised to the Brandon School Division that the level of information would interfere with the protection of personal information. And that was never our intent."
Gustafson mentioned that there have even been scenarios when a specific teacher was identified by the public based on the information that was available online about their classroom.
After receiving a couple of similar privacy complaints from parents and staff, BSD officials decided to stop posting COVID notices on the website altogether.
"We’re still committed to ensuring that those school communities receive a general notification and close contacts. That includes parents and staff for those schools," Gustafson said. "But we won’t be posting that school-specific and class-specific information on the website."
Back in mid-October, Gustafson also brought up "privacy concerns" to explain why he wouldn’t disclose how many BSD employees have been fully vaccinated against COVID and how many employees opted to undergo rapid testing instead.
For those wanting to see which BSD schools are currently being impacted by COVID cases, Gustafson suggests they should consult the province’s online COVID-19 dashboard for K-12 schools.
As of Tuesday evening, at least four BSD schools are enduring coronavirus cases, according to the province’s COVID tracker map.
This includes Linden Lanes School (three), Prairie Hope High School (one), Kirkcaldy Heights School (one) and Riverheights School (seven).
However, all of these cases were identified in the two-week period prior to Nov. 7, which doesn’t provide a completely up-to-date picture of how the pandemic is impacting the division.
Additionally, the map and dashboard aren’t completely up-to-date in terms of outbreaks either.
While BSD officials informed Riverheights parents and staff on Monday that a pair of kindergarten classes were moved to remote learning until Nov. 16 due to a COVID outbreak, that information isn’t available anywhere on the BSD or provincial government website.
BSD’s approach to communicating COVID notices stands in stark contrast to other school divisions in Westman.
For example, Mountain View School Division officials list their COVID cases for the 2021-22 academic year in an Excel spreadsheet that is available to view online. The spreadsheet breaks down each COVID case or exposure in chronological order, while also identifying which schools and classes are being impacted by the virus.
The Rolling River School Division also provides the general public with consistent updates on which institutions are dealing with new cases, posting official public health notices through their website.
However, Gustafson told the Sun on Tuesday that BSD doesn’t have any plans to follow these communication models and will continue to protect the privacy of their parents, students and staff by keeping COVID updates off their website.
Before they stopped posting COVID notices on Oct. 20, BSD officials revealed that at least 10 of their K-12 schools have registered COVID cases since the beginning of the fall semester.
These exposure sites include Riverheights School, Vincent Massey High School, St. Augustine School, École O’Kelly, Betty Gibson School, École New Era, Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School, Kirkcaldy Heights School, Linden Lanes School and King George School.
As of Tuesday evening, the province has identified 916 COVID cases in Manitoba K-12 schools since Sept. 7.
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