Pregnant Nunavik teachers urged to stay home

Expectant mothers at high risk if infected with H1N1

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

The principal at Kangiqsujuaq’s Arsaniq School is pregnant and has opted to take preventive leave, which all pregnant staff at the Kativik School Board can ask for.  (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)


The principal at Kangiqsujuaq’s Arsaniq School is pregnant and has opted to take preventive leave, which all pregnant staff at the Kativik School Board can ask for. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

SARAH ROGERS
Special to Nunatsiaq News

KANGIQSUJUAQ — The Kativik School Board has recommended pregnant workers in its Nunavik schools take early leave to prevent themselves from contracting the H1N1 virus, which causes swine flu.

Pregnant students are also being asked to stay home, said Debbie Astroff, a spokesperson for the Kativik School Board.

Pregnant staff members are being referred to their local community health care clinics to get a certificate of preventative withdrawal or re-assignment, she said.

“We can’t obligate a teacher to take the preventive leave,” Astroff said. “But we are highly recommending that they leave their position.”

Pregnant women are among the groups most vulnerable to the H1N1 virus, and their risk is heightened by working in a school environment, say Quebec health officials.

In Nunavut, a young pregant woman died in hospital this past July 15 after suffering an H1N1 infection. Over the spring and summer, Nunavut recorded about 500 lab-confirmed swine flu cases, although many more residents likely got sick.

So far, the Government of Nunavut has announced no plan to encourage pregnant women, school workers and students to stay away from school work-sites.

But Quebec’s workers health and safety board, the Commission de la santé et de la securité du travail, offers a program called “Pour une maternité sans danger,” which grants pregnant working women an early maternity leave for health reasons.

It’s too soon to say how many pregnant school staff plan to take advantage of this preventive leave option, Astroff said.

But the KSB does not anticipate the early maternity leave departures to create any sudden gaps in Nunavik’s classrooms, she said.

That’s because many pregnant school staff already planned to take early leaves in advance of the board’s recommendation, she said.

At Kangiqsujuaq’s Arsaniq school, three pregnant staff members are weighing the pros and cons of taking an early leave, while a fourth – the school’s principal – has already been granted a preventive leave.

Arsaniq principal Shona McCusker is leaving her position although she’s not expecting her baby until January. Part of her job involved dealing with children that are angry and upset, which added to her reasons to leave work early, she said.

McCusker provided information to her pregnant staff on the early leave option, but the rest is up to them, she said.

“It’s their own body and their choice how they want to deal with this,” McCusker said. “The school board knew from the beginning of the year that this could happen and they were prepared to expect early leaves.”

But some are concerned that the KSB is not ready to deal with a sudden departure of staff only weeks into the academic year.

Sophie Beaudoin, a special education teacher at Arsaniq School, is expecting her second child in January and had initially planned to work until the end of November.

Now, faced with an option to leave earlier, Beaudoin feels torn between caring for herself and caring for her students, who may not have a teacher if she stops working.

“If I knew that a teacher would replace me tomorrow, I’d take the leave right away,” Beaudoin said. “I’m not so concerned about my health right now, but anything can happen.”

Her co-worker, Julie Gagnon, is expecting her third child early next year.

Gagnon would like to take her leave as soon as possible, but also worries who will take over her class and wants to make sure she can still access the free flights that are provided by contract to KSB teachers who come from the South.

These are some of the questions teachers hope to find answers to before they seek a preventive leave.

“Logistics are always a big problem in the north,” said Patrick D’Astous, president of the Association of Employees of Northern Quebec, the union that represents teachers and school support staff in Nunavik.

“It’s always harder to replace teachers in isolated communities than down south. And unfortunately, there is a shortage of housing in Nunavik,” he said. “That’s the reality we have to live with. But (teachers) shouldn’t suffer any loss of rights and privileges.”

Arsaniq’s teachers say they are not concerned about losing their housing if on leave, although McCusker, the school’s principal, said she will likely have to vacate her home in the coming weeks as a replacement is brought in.

The KSB can ask non-local staff to leave their accommodation during a leave that is longer than 45 days.

There are currently 23 confirmed cases of H1N1 in Nunavik, at least three of those in Kangiqsujuaq.

According to Quebec’s workers health and safety board, 390 women have either taken a preventive leave or been re-assigned duties – that number up from 22 at the end of August, the agency said.

In August, two Quebec City school boards made it a policy to let pregnant staff go on preventive leave, following the deaths of two pregnant women in Quebec who died from swine flu.

Quebec’s director of public health has since left it up to individual school boards to determine what course of action they wish to take.

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