As North America prepares for a once-in-a-lifetime solar event, school districts across eastern Canada are weighing potential learning opportunities against possible risks, with most coming down solidly on the side of safety.
Many school boards are making arrangements to ensure students are not at school during the total solar eclipse on April 8, cancelling classes or opting for early dismissal. They cite concerns that kids might damage their eyes by looking directly at the sun, or that the mid-afternoon darkness will make their trek home dangerous.
The path of totality — an approximately 200-kilometre-wide swath where the moon fully blocks the light of the sun — stretches through cities and towns in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. While the full eclipse will only last from one to three minutes, the event is expected to last for more than two hours during mid or late afternoon.
In Toronto, which falls just outside the path of totality and will only experience a partial eclipse that will peak at 3:19 p.m. ET, the city’s biggest school board rescheduled a professional development day for teachers from April 19 to April 8.
“As the eclipse will occur around the dismissal times of many schools, there were concerns that children would be outside and possibly looking directly at the sun, which without appropriate protection, can lead to serious problems such as partial or complete loss of eyesight,” reads a letter to parents, signed by Toronto District School Board director Colleen Russell-Rawlins.
Painless in the moment
The safety issues aren’t to be taken lightly, according to a Toronto ophthalmologist who specializes in retinal diseases.
When a person looks at the sun, it’s typically so bright that their eyes will reflexively close from irritation, said Panos Christakis. But during an eclipse, only a fraction of the light comes through, so your eyes can tolerate looking for a longer period, increasing the risk of damage.
WATCH | Ways to safely watch the eclipse:
How to watch the solar eclipse safely: A physics professor explains
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A UPEI physics professor says people shouldn’t watch the April 8 solar eclipse for too long — even with the proper glasses. Maria Kilfoil, joins CBC News: Compass to talk about the best, and safest, way to watch it.
It would be painless at the moment, so a person would not realize until it was too late that they had permanently lost a significant amount of central vision, a condition called solar retinopathy.
That puts a heavy burden of responsibility on teachers in a classroom setting, he said.
“It just might be hard if a class is looking at this eclipse, having people monitoring to make sure that kids are not looking around the special glasses or are not using the right protection,” Christakis said.
A photo of the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017, shows the sun’s outer atmosphere — a white ring called the corona — peeking out behind the moon. (Philippe Moussette)
Eclipse-safe eye protection, such as the ISO 12312-2 glasses, are specifically developed and tested to prevent eye damage during an eclipse. But they’re not effective if they’re not being worn, he said.
“They’re thousands of times darker than regular sunglasses, so really, you can’t see anything except an extremely bright light,” he said.
“Kids may be underwhelmed by that experience and start peeking around them.”
Learning opportunity of a lifetime
Tracy Webb, an astrophysicist with the Trottier Space Institute at Montreal’s McGill University, worries the school closures are depriving kids of a valuable learning experience.
Montreal is in the path of totality, and most schools and daycares — including the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal, one of the city’s three major French language school boards in the city — will be closed on April 8.
“It is their job to keep the kids safe during school hours and I appreciate that,” Webb said.
“But at the same time, it’s important to be reasonable and not blow it into something that it’s not.”
On April 8, a total solar eclipse is set to pass through parts of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Andrew Chang explains what makes a total eclipse so special, and why this is likely the only one you will ever experience.
Webb said the approximately minute-and-a-half of darkness in Montreal — which will not be pitch black, but rather similar to dawn or dusk — is “not going to cause chaos in the city.”
Webb plans to bring her kids to work with her that day to watch the eclipse. Ideally, she said, everyone would get the day off to view the rare spectacle together.
“My worry about closing schools is that only the kids whose parents can take time off work will be able to experience the eclipse now, whereas maybe school boards and the government could have organized something with the schools so that those kids had a chance also to see the eclipse,” she said.
Why are P.E.I. schools closing early for a solar eclipse?
Students on the Island will get out of class two hours early on April 8, the day the province will experience a full solar eclipse. Find out the reasons behind the move and where it’s left parents.
Montreal scientists Pierre Chastenay and Camille Turcotte penned an open letter in Le Journal de Montreal stating the Quebec government was fuelling hysteria and causing confusion by recommending closures.
Discover the Universe, a program run by Canadian astronomers that offers astronomy training for teachers, encouraged schools to offer opportunities for viewings, writing on its website that enabling students to engage with the eclipse “is the safest and most productive course of action schools can take.”
Proceeding with caution
In the United States, some schools are cancelling classes while others are organizing group viewings, even busing students into the path of totality. Teachers in Dallas were told at a teaching workshop that it would be “almost criminal” to keep students inside during the eclipse, according to the Associated Press.
In Canada, most major school boards are erring on the side of caution.
While most Ontario boards are rescheduling a professional development day, Ottawa’s biggest school board didn’t have a spare day to move so it’s simply eliminating a teaching day.
Prince Edward Island students will be dismissed two hours early “out of an abundance of caution,” the provincial government said in a news release. Alberton, P.E.I., will have one of the longest viewings in Canada, lasting for three minutes and three seconds when it happens at 4:35 AT.
When the sun, moon and Earth line up on April 8, Hilding Neilson will be outside looking up — even if it’s pouring rain. Neilson is hosting the Solar Eclipse Soiree in Gander, a four-day festival celebrating the science, culture and fun of this stellar moment.
Students in New Brunswick may be sent home early so they can “safely arrive at their after-school destination before the eclipse begins,” said the province’s education department.
The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District has not announced plans to dismiss early, though it will experience the eclipse later in the day, hitting Gander at 5:12 p.m. NT. The eclipse will just skim the northern tip of Nova Scotia, where it can be viewed in Meat Cove.
Map of the path of totality in Canada for the April 8 solar eclipse. (Canadian Space Agency)
Tips for safe viewing
Even if schools are opting out, Webb urges parents to seek out viewing events in their communities.
In Montreal, McGill University will host an eclipse fair where 20,000 pairs of protective glasses will be available for the public.
If you have eclipse glasses, Christakis said you can test them by looking at a bright, uncovered light bulb. You should just be able to see a “very faint dot.”
He emphasized that it’s only safe to remove the glasses during the brief period of totality, when the sun is completely eclipsed by the moon and only the sun’s corona is visible as a faint halo.
You will know this is happening when you no longer see anything through the glasses, he said. Once even a sliver of sun reappears, the glasses need to go back on.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience our kids probably should participate in, or consider participating in, but obviously in a safe manner — using the right glasses and supervised by an adult,” he said.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia‘s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
