The choice of whether to unmask or remain masked has become a major decision for students and staff alike since new regulations went into effect on March 1.
Virginia’s SB 739 allows parents to elect for their child not to wear a mask at school without submitting a formal reason. Similarly, new CDC guidelines released Feb. 25 categorize FCPS under “low” community transmission rates, which allows teachers and staff to opt-out of masks in accordance with FCPS’s statement two days later.
“I feel pretty comfortable [with the policy],” senior Subhi Mekki said. “People who feel sick or are scared still wear their masks, so there shouldn’t be any problem.
Among the many teachers handling the new guidance and policies is English teacher Matthew Horne.
“I trust the science,” Horne said. “I’ve trusted the science the whole time. I feel like that’s the only way to do it in this society—we have to trust the experts.”
Horne said the majority of his students have decided to stay masked, but said he was surprised to learn many teachers did the same.
“I thought more people were going to be not wearing masks,” he said. “I’ve sort of felt for a while that students are missing out a lot on seeing my emotions … It’s not to say that I’ve been like, super eager to rip off my mask and burn it, it’s just that I feel like that’s been something that I’ve been missing.”
Horne also said he feels that the common discussion topic of masks is a convenient distraction to avoid talking about issues that are more salient.
“The sooner we make this less of a deal, the sooner I’m comfortable taking off my mask, the sooner we can talk about other issues, because our conversation about masks in school has dominated a lot of educational settings,” Horne said. “We’ve not been able to talk about massive inequalities that have happened in other areas like reading loss and the math deficiencies.”
Sophomore Ershad Payaam said the new policy doesn’t worry him ever since he got his booster shot.
“I honestly didn’t know what I was going to see when I came to school, and it looked normal like the mask mandate had never been abolished,” Payaam said. “What I did was wear my mask, but once I saw more and more people take them off, I followed with them.”
Payaam said he recognizes there are health risks people take into account when choosing whether or not to unmask. One student with such considerations is sophomore Riley Wild.
“I am immunosuppressed, so it’s a little stressful for me,” Wild said. “But I have gotten my second booster, and I double mask every day, so I feel safe because the CDC says that it’s okay.”
Wild said she takes extra precautions to protect herself under the new regulations.
“If I’m sitting next to someone in class who has their mask off, I need to scooch away or sit somewhere else,” she said. “But overall, it hasn’t really changed much. I was afraid I would have to go virtual, but I don’t.”
Along with Wild, English teacher Pierce Bello said he also has his own family to think of before he will feel comfortable removing his mask.
“I was selfishly hoping that [optional masking] wouldn’t happen until after there was a vaccine approved for kids younger than five because my youngest son, Finnegan, is four and he’s not able to get it yet,” Bello said.
Whether people have other considerations or not, Bello said he acknowledges choosing whether or not to mask is a personal choice.
“I don’t think [the mandate lifting] affected me too much because I’m just going to continue to protect myself and my family,” Bello said. “But also, I respect other people and what choices they want to make about their own bodies and their own health.”