Author ORCID Identifier

Sonia Lawrence: 0000-0001-9828-7932

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

Source Publication

Kelly, Lisa M., et al. “Pandemic Schooling and the Politics of Safety.” Queen’s Law Journal, vol. 46, no. 2, 2021, pp. 343–56.

Abstract

In this paper, the authors consider how pandemic schooling is increasing educational inequalities that may have generational effects. Reviewing emerging evidence on rates of return to in-person schooling and disparities in remote learning in Ontario, the authors argue that the pandemic is accelerating existing trends of privatization and choice. Emerging data suggests that students from more affluent and whiter households have returned to in-person learning at higher rates than their lower-income and racialized peers. When families with more resources have opted for remote learning, they have been better able to supplement online lessons. For numerous reasons, including higher rates of local COVID-19 spread, fears of infection in multi-generational households, and mistrust in public schools, racialized and less affluent families are opting for remote learning at higher rates without the necessary supports. This paper situates these constrained family “choices” in a longer trajectory of school safety laws and policies that have borne down unevenly on racialized students, poorer students, and students with disabilities. School safety mandates in Ontario and elsewhere have transformed modern student life through zero- tolerance discipline policies, enhanced school surveillance, and the rapid expansion of school resource officer (SRO) programs. In so doing, these laws and policies have often worked to under-protect and over-punish the most vulnerable students. The authors argue that in a time of pandemic and racial reckoning, families are making decisions about schooling in the shadow of this history.

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