This past week, the Aledo School District recently overturned their original requirement that all students must wear masks while at school. This decision was originally put in place to keep all students safe and lower their chances of acquiring or spreading the coronavirus while at school. However, with the number of cases being found in our district, the requirement has been overturned in favor of allowing students to choose if they will wear masks or not.

The decision to lift the mask mandate is one that should be supported by students and faculty of the district.

The biggest piece of evidence that supports the overturning of this requirement is that the number of students who were contracting and spreading the virus has decreased significantly. With the number of COVID cases going down, it is safer for students who do not wish to wear masks. When Gov. Abbott lifted the mask mandate for the state of Texas, many students and parents were beginning to wonder how long schools would keep with the protocol of masks, and many were growing tired of having to keep wearing their mask. However, while many people are happy about the mask mandate quite a few aren’t. 

One of the biggest controversies over wearing masks versus not wearing masks is that it is both a choice of freedom and for some, a restriction. One of the largest arguments against wearing masks is the idea that for some, it is a means of government control and restriction on personal freedoms. Just as with any dangerous decision, there is still freedom in the person being able to decide how they handle such a situation. People should be allowed to decide whether they will or will not wear masks, at this point, without receiving backlash for their decision. 

 While masks may have been necessary at one point, they no longer seem as essential now with the vaccine going around. The vaccines are now available to almost all age groups, including teens. This renders masks even more unnecessary at the high school level. After all, the vaccine is meant to reduce the chance of catching COVID and is seen as a means to an end. If it is not treated as such, but instead just another safety measure, it begins to raise the question of  ‘to what end?’

While initially, after the mask policy was lifted, the school board didn’t seem to be making any moves to allow students to change back from in person classes back to virtual. This caused an issue for many of the students and families who were concerned about this, as they had come back to school under the impression that the whole school would be wearing masks and would be safe. However, the school has since reconciled this and students who are uncomfortable with the district’s decision are allowed to go back to online schooling. Some teachers are also taking measures to help students that wear masks be more socially distanced in their classroom. 

The decision to take masks away is one that benefits the majority of the students at this school and is a step forward in the right direction to ending the pandemic.