Parents demand B.C. schools do more to improve air quality as triple epidemic rages

Roger Haskett and his family have built four do-it-yourself air purifiers to help reduce the spread of viruses in their home, but he’d really like to see these simple devices in his kids’ Grade 3 and 6 classrooms.

“I think these would be amazing in schools,” said Haskett. “They suck in potentially infected air and shoot out the clean air.”

The District Parent Advisory Council sent a letter last fall to the Vancouver school board, asking to provide these so-called Corsi-Rosenthal boxes to improve air quality in classrooms. The school district did not answer a query from Postmedia about the boxes, but the advisory council says the board rejected the parents’ offer, taking the position the do-it-yourself air purifiers would provide little benefit when it comes to virus transmission.

“I’m infuriated and I’m disgusted. To turn down something that is going to help kids,” Haskett said, “it seems absolutely crazy to me.”

This is just one example of the complicated conversation around efforts to clean the air in schools, where children spend six hours a day and then come home to their families. The debate is of particular importance right now with the triple epidemic of COVID-19, the flu and RSV, all respiratory viruses.