A BASINGSTOKE mum has launched a campaign against the government’s “reckless” plans to send children back to school from as early as next week.

Mother-of-two Mayola De L’Ennemi has launched a Facebook group and petition to keep Basingstoke schools closed until unions decide it is safe for them to open to more children.

The 46-year-old from Oakridge described measures to social distance children whilst at school as “cruel”, adding: “I think it’s outrageous what the government is doing. My main concern is that the schools are being used as a childcare option to get people back to work, but there’s not enough PPE and the government is totally and utterly inadequate to let children go back to school. It’s an accident waiting to happen.

“As long as there’s no track and trace facility available and not enough PPE it’s unsafe for anyone going out into the community.”

The single mum, who is a criminology and psychology student, has been sending her nine-year-old daughter to school because she is classed as vulnerable.

However, she said that if more children are allowed to return to school from June 1, she will keep her at home because she considers it to be unsafe.

Mayola, who is branch secretary of the socialist party in Basingstoke, added: “My youngest goes to South View Junior School and I am very concerned about the safety of the children, school staff and the families of the children. There’s not been any reassurance from the school, but my main concern is with the government’s dealing with the crisis.”

Basingstoke Gazette:

She labelled the plans as “exploiting people’s health” adding: “Why are they sending the smallest children first who can’t adhere to social distancing and lots of schools are too small to have proper social distancing in place. Why aren’t they sending secondary school children because they can socially distance? I know why, the answer is because children at secondary school don’t need their parents to be at home so they can go back to work. The government is thinking about people going back to work not about the mental health of children. It’s a complete farce.”

The mum is calling on Hampshire County Council not to allow schools to re-open until various safety measures have been met, including a testing, tracing and isolation system being in place; infection rates to be low enough to allow this to operate successfully; and a checklist to confirm that social distancing, PPE, protection for vulnerable staff and their relatives are all risk assessed.

Mayola’s petition can be found on Change.org titled Keep Hampshire schools shut until unions decide it is safe.