Masks Off

The masks came off Tuesday. 

One teacher wrote a schoolwide email saying, "He thought his students were getting too much air!" Everyone was more riled up than usual, but we made it through. 

I had to laugh out loud after reading between the lines on an email from Shane's school on Thursday:

I am also writing to share that we have not seen any bullying or teasing in regards to the change in mask policy.  Students are respecting each family's choice.  We have seen that many students are demonstrating less self-control than earlier in the year.  Students seem to be having a harder time following the rules on the bus, distract their peers more often during class, and struggle to follow the rules in general.  We will keep working with them on this and ask that you also have conversations at home.  We also encourage you to talk with them about their academic goals and how they are making progress towards those goals.

That may not be 100% from the masks dropping, but I doubt the timing was pure coincidence!

My prediction is that things will eventually calm down and there will be a gradual drop in the number of masks worn. Kids will look around and when they see kids without masks on they will slowly start to ditch theirs. I don't think anything short of a major outbreak will change this and I don't think the data suggests there's going to be one of those. There may be an increase in stomach bugs or other "minor/non-pandemic" illnesses, but I doubt students will equate that to whether or not they're wearing their masks (And many who wear masks don't wear them fully correctly so, again, I'm not predicting a huge change).

My first thoughts are still that the governor moved too quickly to ban all mask mandates. I think they would've gone away eventually as more rural areas opened up first. I would've liked to have gone a little longer before throwing another transition in the mix...

...but I hope he was right. Maybe we'll get back to normal sooner rather than later (even if there are a few more bumps on the way).