Covid rules battering country boarders

Country boarding students are bearing the brunt of senseless and unclear Covid restrictions, with the situation becoming unbearable for many.

A mental health crisis is developing among boarding school students and families in South Australia due to strict and inconsistent Covid restrictions.

Parents say recommendations from SA Health about Covid-safe procedures are unclear and being interpreted differently by individual schools.

Some boarding students are having to wear masks at all times in boarding houses, are not allowed visitors or to mix with anyone outside the boarding house beyond school hours, are unable to play sport or attend study groups, are being isolated in their rooms and banned from mixing with friends or other students that they have just spent the day with at school.

SA Health’s inflexible close contact rules also mean some students are required to go home to isolate so parents on remote properties are being forced to drive many hundreds of kilometres to collect them, exposing not only themselves but anyone else they come in contact with on their way home.

Meanwhile, day school students are free to do as they please beyond school.

The situation has become unbearable for many students and their mental health and wellbeing has dived to worrying levels for families, so much so that some have pulled their children out of boarding.

Elke Kerin on her family’s station in SA. Picture: Supplied

WELLBEING CRISIS

Boarding parent Lynly Kerin from North Well Station, 4.5 hours northwest of Port Augusta, SA, and seven hours from Adelaide, describes the situation as “a wellbeing crisis”.

She has taken her year eight daughter Elke out of boarding and is temporarily living in Adelaide to be with her so she can still attend day school.

Ms Kerin said there were no restrictions when Elke did orientation last year and she loved it but from drop off this year it was completely different after last minute SA Health rules left schools unprepared to manage restrictions.

Elke Kerin at school. Picture: Supplied

Elke with her mum Lynly Kerin. Picture: Supplied

“Drop off was incredibly heartbreaking and difficult. We couldn’t spend time with her. We had to drop and go. As a 12-year-old and our first time doing it, it was heartbreaking. Horrible,” she said.

“Then once they were in there they couldn’t return to sport, had to stay in their own units, weren’t allowed out to walk to the shops, no family could come and get them, only a parent. It broke her heart. She couldn’t tolerate the homesickness. It was all so different to orientation.

“They couldn’t mix with others. She didn’t have a room buddy and was left in her room for a long time. She couldn’t go to other rooms to visit other kids and couldn’t do sport to take her mind off it.

“The most heartbreaking thing was having different restrictions to day students that could do whatever they wanted and they could sit next to my daughter who wasn’t allowed to do anything. It was like the boarders were being punished.”

Elke’s mental health suffered badly during the first month of school.

“She wasn’t coping. It was very detrimental to her mental health. She is scarred and not prepared to give boarding another go at all. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. We don’t know if things are going to improve.

“It is a wellbeing crisis. This is really hurting our boarders. My daughter is not the kid she was when she came down here. She now has to go to a psychologist this week to get to the crux of it.”

LONG TERM EFFECTS

Belinda Hatcher is from a sheep and cattle property in the Flinders Ranges, 500km from Adelaide, and has two children at boarding school.

She said their mental health was suffering as a result of the strict Covid rules.

“Day school friends are going home to relatively normal lives while my daughter Lily is going home to her boarding house, has to wear a mask in all common areas, no sport, isn’t allowed to socialise with her peers in their rooms and until recently had to do homework in their rooms separately,” Belinda said, adding at one point the kids were only allowed out for 30 minutes a day, which wasn’t even enough time to get to the shop and back.

“I don’t know that SA Health have considered the long term mental health effects if this continues for 12 months. These students are not a big percentage of people in the state but they seem to be getting the raw end of the deal.”

NOT CLEAR-CUT

Parents say schools are doing their best to cope but SA Health guidelines and directives are unclear making it difficult for schools to make decisions and pass on correct information to parents.

Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association of Australia president Alana Moller said they had serious concerns for the wellbeing of boarding children as restrictions had placed them at a disadvantage to their day student peers.

“Their families continue to be exasperated by conditions imposed and measures implemented to limit the spread of the virus in boarding schools,” she said

“Inconsistent, unjustifiable and stifling guidelines, processes and rules have proven to extenuate these vulnerabilities, proving unbearable for the children and indeed heartbreaking for their families.

“ICPA calls for a balanced approach to risk management within boarding situations, where the Covid risks can be mitigated without disproportionate constraints on our vulnerable young children.”

MORE SUPPORT

A statement from SA Health said it continued to work on risk reduction strategies to support boarding schools in their management of Covid cases and close contacts. It was also supporting some individual boarding schools that had been affected.

“The advice for boarding schools includes the importance of schools having outbreak plans tailored to their sites, and recommends engaging parents to ensure plans align with the best interests of boarding students,” the statement read.

“The process for isolating positive cases and close contacts is determined by the school and will depend on the facilities and arrangements in place with parents. Schools are best placed to understand their own settings and the needs of their school community.

“Our advice will be reviewed and updated as our local circumstances change.”

ICPA South Australia president Jill Greenfield said the ICPA had met with and provided many case studies to SA Health and the Department for Education about the current student boarding predicament in hope of getting modifications made to the close contact rules but there was little traction on the matter.

“I don’t know what the answer is but it can’t continue like this. It is so disruptive for parents and seriously impacting the kids’ mental health,” she said.