Covid Vic: Students stranded at NSW ag boarding school

The Victorian Department of Health have weighed in on where travel exemptions stand for parents and students separated by state borders.

Victorian families of students at an agricultural boarding school in NSW are echoing calls for exemptions to travel across the border to reunite with their children.

It comes after Federal Regional Education Minister Bridget McKenzie on Friday committed to developing a national framework to allow the small number of rural minors studying interstate travel to spend term breaks with their parents.

With the whole of NSW thrust into a lockdown at the weekend, some parents were scrambling from afar to find their children suitable accommodation for first a mid-term break, then the longer-term prospect of extended remote learning.

Nerida Stadler, from Staughton Vale near Geelong, has a son in year 10 at NSW’s state-run Yanco Agricultural High School and hasn’t seen him since last school holidays.

Mrs Stadler said the news of lockdown across the state meant her son Angus had to rely on the generosity of his school friend’s families to find solace as schools were shut down.

“I feel comfortable that he is with his friends but at the same time it’s different to having your son at home,” she said.

“He’s an independent kid but he feels concerned that he is asking someone else’s parents to have him.”

Mrs Stadler said the ongoing uncertainty about when they would be allowed to come home would undoubtedly be causing stress to the 10 students in the same situation.

“The kids are stoic but ultimately it does affect their mental health — you have a different connection with your children when you make that decision to send your child to a boarding school but you weren’t planning on a pandemic,” she said.

Angus Sadler. Picture: Supplied

While the injustice of exemptions granted for other cases was not lost on her, ultimately she is asking for a “road out’ of the problem from the Victorian Government

“If Angus played football for the Sydney Swans he could have flown from Sydney into Melbourne then flown back to Sydney no problems.

“We’re trying to get a solution and an exemption to travel to get our child and then return to our home,” she said.

Graytown farmer and parent of a Yanco boarder Amanda McClaren hopes the Victorian Government will help reunite rural parents with their children.

She chose to keep her 14-year-old son, who normally boards at Yanco, at home in Victoria at the start of term 3, because she did not trust that he would be allowed to return once regional NSW was declared a red zone.

Her fears were confirmed last week, when the 10 fellow Victorian Yanco students were denied a border permit exemption. The only way they could cross the Victoria-NSW border was if they went straight to hotel quarantine for 14 days.

“We are just caught up in the challenges of living in one state and schooling in another one,” Ms McClaren said.

“We were contacted on Thursday night by the department of health. Thursday afternoon we were told they couldn’t come home. Then Thursday night, at 10.30, we got a phone call saying they can come home but will have to quarantine in Melbourne hotel quarantine.

“I said I would take it back to the parents, but these are kids coming from a relatively safe environment on an isolated NSW farm campus and could go home and isolate safely.”

That exemption was not granted, and the 10 Victorian Yanco boarders were instead billeted out with other families across NSW this past weekend, when the campus shut for a mid-term break.

Parents are now desperate to know if the Victorian health department will grant exemptions for their children to come home, test and isolate on their home properties.

The Department of Health have reiterated their stance on border crossing exemptions, saying the public health advice remains to avoid travelling to NSW, although there were circumstances where parents could quarantine in hotels with their child.

“Exemptions are extremely limited and only granted in very special circumstances, such as in end-of-life situations, and all requests are individually assessed,” a spokeswoman said.

“This approach is vital to ensure Victoria remains free from further interstate incursions of COVID-19.”