Upon hearing the news, Pierre's 9-year-old son blamed the blow. “At first, he didn't believe me, and I showed him the map of the departments where the mask would become mandatory again. He was annoyed. He has the impression that we are never going to get out of it, ”his father confides. Like Augustin, schooled in CM1, schoolchildren from 39 departments will have to put on a mask, which has nevertheless disappeared from their faces since the beginning of October, where "the incidence rate has unfortunately stabilized above 50 per 100,000 inhabitants. “, As announced Gabriel Attal, spokesperson for the government. A step back sometimes difficult to swallow for children. Le Parisien gives you some keys for a serene return to school.
How do you get the news to the kids?
It obviously depends on the age, immediately recalls Agnès Pargade, child psychiatrist. “Between a CM2 and a CP, the vocabulary will not be the same. But in any case, you have to be factual. The argument that can work is to evoke winter. By explaining that it is a period when it is cold, during which we ventilate less and that there is a risk that the nasty germ will stay inside the classroom and then return home if we do not put not the mask, ”illustrates the doctor.
Important for Agnès Pargade: demonize the use of this protection.
“Children can be reminded that in some countries it is a habit.
And then that has advantages, it will keep us warm at the end of the nose during the cold periods ”.
Why not either show its TousAntiCovid application, a program on the subject, or even buy a specialized book for children on the health crisis.
“It lets them know that this is not a decision out of the hat.
You have to show them the health watch that takes place to reassure them ”.
Will there be masks available at school?
No, the masks are the responsibility of the families.
It will therefore be necessary to remember to give it to your child on the day of the start of the school year.
Are there other rules to be observed?
Yes, because moving to “level 2” also implies limiting mixing between pupils from different groups. Entrances to schools, recess, and off-beat lunches will therefore make a comeback. In time for the start of the school year? Of course, as Alain Talleu, teacher and departmental co-secretary of the Snuipp-FSU, the first primary school union, suggests.
“As a parent, I received an email on Wednesday, five days before the start of the school year, from my director to inform me of the change in protocol. But not all parents will receive this email. So, it will already be necessary to verify that the children have been instructed to wear their masks on Monday, ”points out this teacher from the North, who will have to enforce discipline in his class. “I had anticipated when the obligation was lifted by reminding them that that should not prevent them from paying attention, without necessarily going into the details of the incidence rate. It may take 24 hours for this to set in place, but it's not with the students that it's the most complicated. "
Will we have to get used to these back and forths?
If the health situation tended to improve, and the incidence rates dropped back below the symbolic bar of 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, then yes, the obligation to wear the mask could fall again. As a reminder, it is this threshold that determines changes in the health protocol implemented by the government. As long as it is not crossed for five consecutive days, it allows establishments to be at level 1 (green), and to abandon the mask in primary.
But the evolution of the epidemic in France may not move the lines immediately.
During the week of October 18 according to Public Health France, the threshold of 50 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants was exceeded "in 44 metropolitan departments" and "increasing or stable in all regions".