NICOLA Sturgeon has hit out at "utterly disgraceful" comments from Ruth Davidson as they clashed over school reopening plans.
The First Minister responded on Twitter this morning after the former Scottish Tory leader accused a health expert of backtracking following the "hairdryer treatment".
Public health expert Devi Sridhar tweeted yesterday that her “personal view” is that if cases of coronavirus are low enough, schools should “reopen as normally as possible” when they return on August 11.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon hopes ‘nearer normality’ may be possible when schools go back
This was seen in some quarters as going against the Scottish Government's proposals, which could see pupils spend only part of their week in the classroom.
The Edinburgh University professor responded this morning by writing: "Nicola Sturgeon and I are completely aligned and I support her cautious approach to easing lockdown and re-opening schools.
"She has kids (and teachers, parents) best interest in mind so better to go slowly, track virus closely and make decisions in a reasoned and data-driven way."
But, former Glasgow MSP Davidson later quoted Prof. Sridhar's message and wrote: "Guess someone got the hairdryer treatment over the phone...."
It wasn't long before Ms Sturgeon, who is also an MSP in the city, responded, calling the accusation "untrue".
She wrote: "Untrue...but more importantly, utterly disgraceful to suggest that a highly respected expert (who I suspect has more integrity in her wee finger than *some* have overall) would be susceptible to that."
As we reported earlier, Education Secretary John Swinney had warned it was “unlikely” that education would return to normal in the next academic year – prompting dismay from parents.
He said that was because “we’ll have to maintain the social distancing approaches for some considerable time to come”.
Plans being drawn up by councils could see some youngsters spend as little as one day a week in class, it has been reported.
However, on Monday, Ms Sturgeon dismissed his suggestion that the blended learning system – where youngsters spend part of the week in class but continue learning at home – could last for the whole of the 2020-21 school year.
“It is absolutely not the case that we are planning for blended learning, with children learning at home for part of the school week, to last a year, or anything like it,” she insisted.
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