More than 4600 parents push for Victorian kids to return to classrooms

More than 4600 people have signed a petition calling on the Victorian government to allow kids to return to classrooms.

Elizabeth Tritton, one of four mothers who spearheaded the petition, said the mental health and education impacts of lockdown outweigh the possible health risks associated with returning to school campuses.

She said her children are suffering.

“They’re just not the same children that I had going into this,” she told Neil Mitchell.

“In the first six weeks … it was all a bit inconvenient, but it was also all a bit novel. Now, I think teenagers are withdrawing.

“They can’t log on, they can’t understand.”

Ms Tritton said Melbourne school kids have missed out on more classroom time this year than children almost anywhere in the world.

“Through my work I talk to a lot of people overseas,” she said.

“When I explain the fact that our children really haven’t been in classroom since march they are just dumbfounded.

“Our children will miss out on more of that academic year than anywhere else in the world, except for, I think, Nairobi.”

The petition is available HERE.

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