"We had to tell her that this is not normal. 'Mommy and daddy will try to make it safe for you.'"
Parents at Devonshire Community Public School want action about a construction project across the street they fear is creating noise loud enough to damage the hearing of children in the playground.
Claridge Homes began drilling Monday at the site on Breezehill Avenue N. and Somerset Street West to build an apartment tower.
Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.
Thanks for signing up!
A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
The next issue of Ottawa Citizen Headline News will soon be in your inbox.
The noise is creating a health and safety hazard for children at the school on Breezehill, say parents who have taken their own decibel readings of what they describe as ear-splitting noise.
The school cut some recesses short this week. Several parents sent their children to school with noise-cancelling headphones. One mom said she picked up her daughter, who way crying and distraught, early from school.
“Parents are understandably furious,” said Jane Harley, who has a child in kindergarten. “Children are being exposed to this all day.”
She said her daughter got a headache on Monday, which is unusual, and complained that the school was shaking.
“We had to tell her that this is not normal. ‘Mommy and daddy will try to make it safe for you.'”
Harley sent an email to officials at Claridge saying “the noise needs to stop immediately, at all times when children are in or around the building. If it continues, Claridge Homes will be directly responsible for the hearing damage caused to hundreds of children and educators.”
In a statement, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board said its Facilities, Planning and Risk Management teams were “looking into what can be done to support the school with noise reduction options.”
Board officials contacted Claridge and were told the noise might last eight weeks, said the statement shared with parents.
Claridge said it would shut down noisy operations for a hour each day from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., the statement added.
The board said the noise was sporadic, but had “made it difficult at times for students to concentrate and educators to teach in our classes.”
Engy Sedki, co-chair of the Devonshire school council, said parents wanted immediate measures taken to mitigate the noise.
“Kids and parents have to yell outside to be able to hear the person next to them. The classrooms are shaking. The kids are complaining they have been unable to hear their teachers inside.”
She sent her kindergarten daughter to school this week with noise-cancelling headphones, said Sedki.
Parents had met with officials from Claridge in early 2022 and agreed on mitigating measures to be put in place when construction began, she said.
Initially the drilling, which began Monday, was supposed to be done in the summer, she said. The project was delayed and a new project manager came on board, she said.
“At least meet us at the table and come up with mitigations so our kids’ safety and mental health are not at risk.”
Parents and teachers took sound measurements outside the school this week that registered decibel readings ranging from 95 and 120, said Sedki.
“Anything over 90 can cause permanent hearing damage, and that’s for adults. These are our children.”
Noise regulations under the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act require employers to ensure workers are not exposed to sound levels greater than an average of 85 decibels over an eight-hour day.
Brian Larsen, who has two children at Devonshire, said he used a decibel meter on Wednesday near the kindergarten playground that showed a reading of about 95.
“I recognize the need for more housing, absolutely,” he said. “And I realize that construction is loud, but I don’t think that we should be decimating our children.
“I think there should be some sort of middle ground between allowing construction and the safety and well-being of 350 children at Devonshire.”
Some decibel comparisons: city traffic is about 70 decibels; a lawn mower is 90; a chain saw is 100; a rock concert is 120; and a shotgun blast is 140.
Devonshire parent Britanny Laframboise said the noise from the construction site was “ludicrously loud” on Tuesday. She could hear it from her home nearly a kilometre away.
“I could feel the vibrations, I could hear the noise just sitting in my living room, all day.”
Her daughter Ava, 4, is sensitive to sound, Laframboise said. She’s a “COVID child” who never went to daycare and was still adjusting to the chatter of a kindergarten class, she said.
“So we picked her up early (from school on Tuesday) as soon as I could tell how bad the noise was. And she just cried and screamed and didn’t want to be outside. She didn’t want to be anywhere near it.
“Oh my God, it was very loud. She just wanted to cover her ears and the kids were all covering their ears.”
Laframboise and Sedki said it would not be realistic to demand all construction stop but some measures should be put in place.
The school also houses a day-care centre, so various groups of children are outside virtually all day long, said Sedki.
Several parents have suggested a noise baffle and an adapted construction schedule.
Perhaps the drilling could be done before or after school, said Laframboise.
The city of Ottawa’s noise bylaw does not allow construction sites to operate before 7 a.m. and after 10 p.m. from Monday to Saturday, and before 9 a.m. or after 10 p.m. on Sunday and holidays.
jmiller@postmedia.com
-
Crown cites 'irrefutable' evidence in Hikoalok trial closing arguments, defence makes case for manslaughter
-
OC Transpo ridership up in October, but still short of predictions