"To learn you have all your life, but health, you only have one!"
Mother of two boys, Aroa Miranda does not hide her annoyance at the management of the health crisis and the start of the school year in Spain, where the Covid-19 epidemic is once again virulent.
Like many parents, she decided that she would not put her children back to school.
"They are doing an experiment to see what will happen, like with guinea pigs", indignant this 37-year-old woman who lives in Castellon de la Plana, in the east of the country. .
"For my 8-year-old son, I will try to invent excuses, to say that he is ill," explains Aroa when schooling is compulsory in the country from 6 to 16 years old.
As for her 3-year-old son, she did not hesitate to unsubscribe him from school.
According to her, the compulsory mask at school from 6 years old, at all times, and the measures of distancing, will not be enough.
"If I don't have the right to gather more than ten people in my house, I don't understand why my son should be with 25 children in a class," she is surprised.
"No zero risk"
For several weeks, demonstrations and petitions from parents have multiplied in Spain to demand more health guarantees in schools.
According to an international survey by the Ipsos institute published at the end of July, Spanish opinion is against the tide of its European neighbors.
A majority of respondents in Spain are in favor of reducing the number of days of face-to-face lessons, and a quarter would prefer to wait “between 4 and 6 months” before sending children back to school.
Faced with the concern, the authorities oscillate between reassuring messages and threats of sanctions.
"Schools are much safer than other places even if there is no zero risk in an epidemic," the head of government, Pedro Sanchez insisted on Tuesday, "but there is a risk that we must avoid: social exclusion ".
"Children cannot live in bubbles," pleaded the chief epidemiologist of the Ministry of Health, Fernando Simon.
"They can also catch (the virus) at the park, or when they go to see their cousins or from their father who is infected at work."
In a country where nearly a quarter of the population lives under the same roof as a loved one over 65, according to a 2018 public institute survey, many parents fear exposing their elders.
The specter of sanctions
Unemployed, Aroa also fears the economic consequences of contamination of one of her children.
"If we have to confine ourselves at home for 15 days because of school, my husband will receive nothing," she explains.
In response, the Minister of Social Security, José Luis Escriva, spoke on Friday of the possibility of compensating parents of children in preventive quarantine whose test is negative.
The specter of sanctions also hangs over refractory families.
The head of education for the Madrid region thus warned at the end of August against a possible sentence of "one to three years in prison".
The Minister of Education, Isabel Celaa, for her part, ordered a report on the issue without ruling out possible sanctions.
"Education is a right of the student, and not of the parents" and "it is an obligation of the public authorities to ensure respect for this right", she warned in the daily El Pais.
"Get them fined, for me the most important thing is my kids," Aroa retorts.
With AFP
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