Basel – Parents sharply criticize the Steiner School’s information mail about the mask requirement

For the start of school on January 3rd, the Basel city government decided on new measures. “We have to assume that the new year will start difficult,” said Conradin Cramer, head of the education department in a statement on Tuesday. In order to ensure the opening of the schools, children will have to wear a mask from the first grade onwards. A measure that the neighboring canton of Basel-Landschaft enacted at the beginning of December.

On Tuesday, all parents of students at the Rudolf Steiner School in Basel were sent an email informing them about the mask requirement. These are to be complied with as long as there is no “mask exemption certificate”. The e-mail is by no means written neutrally and calls into question the sense of the mask requirement, parents annoy. By mentioning the certificate, the school is showing parents who are critical of measures a back door on how they can exempt their children from their duty.

For example, the undersigned conference management of the school asks: “Do you think it is appropriate that restrictions such as the mask requirement are imposed on children from January in order to protect adults from Covid-19?” The school further formulates that children are “hardly” at risk from Covid-19 and will henceforth be under the “influence” of the canton.

“The way these teachers deal with the current situation is a tragedy,” one mother said to 20 Minuten. The school tries to subvert the measures by writing. «Instead of calling for the children to finally be able to take part in a spit test and to help cope with the pandemic and keep the school going, parents are asked to get a mask exemption », she says annoyed.

Steiner schools in the region have already attracted attention in the past through critical statements and actions against measures and have repeatedly become corona hotspots.

The Rudolf Steiner School says about the allegations: “We understand that the formulations in the letter can be misunderstood in some cases,” said Christian Ostheimer, member of the school management. Ostheimer assures us that the school implemented the extended mask requirement in accordance with cantonal requirements. He rejects the accusation that the certificate was intended to show parents a loophole. When writing, the statement in question was based on the cantonal ordinance.

The school’s letter was not correct in terms of content, criticized SP Grand Councilor Pascal Pfister. “It’s not just about protecting adults. In the current wave, an above-average number of children are affected by an infection, ”he corrects. Depending on the study, three to eleven percent of children would have to struggle with Long Covid after an illness. It is estimated that at least 45,000 children and adolescents in Switzerland are affected by the long-term consequences of the infection.

The health department does not comment on expressions of opinion by school administrators in public, as it is called upon request from 20 Minuten.