After FCPS’ hybrid schedule in 2020-2021, requirements for all students and staff were to wear masks at all times and keep their distance from one another. This stayed the same through the following year until March 1st when regulations allowed students the option to take off masks. Many students decided to continue to wear masks, while others chose to take theirs off. The 2022-2023 school year has begun with many students returning without a mask and few still wearing theirs.
How has the transition out of Covid-19 felt like?
Recovering from COVID-19 conditions and returning to school gives students a sense of familiarity at FCPS, slowly returning to a pre-lockdown environment and habits. School procedure is finally seeming more normal and what students are used to.
Why do students still choose to wear masks?
This year, few students still wear their masks, whether for safety concerns, privacy, health issues, etc.. Mumtahina Ahmed, grade 10, wears it as a safety precaution, saying, “I don’t know what other people might have.” Others who were interviewed felt the same and chose to wear masks as a safety precaution. When asked if they preferred other people to wear masks as well, they feel comfortable with other students choosing not to, saying “I don’t really mind what others choose to do” (Aileen Ardeela, grade 12). Overall, most students still masking at Oakton choose to wear it for themselves and don’t mind what others do.
Why do people choose to go without masking
As years have gone by, people are choosing to leave their masks at home. Mawada Silwam, grade 12, says “I decided to take it off at the beginning of this year because it felt weird keeping it on when no one else had it on. It also felt like COVID has kinda ended.” When interviewed, most people said similar things. Most people had agreed when they took theirs off and why they stopped wearing theirs. “I took it off at the beginning of 8th grade…I felt like the mask mandate was good when it was active because it was for everyone’s safety,” says Mays Numan, grade 9. Since COVID rates have gone down, people have gotten more comfortable without masks. Maybe by next year, most people will choose to stop wearing their masks too.
Throughout the years since COVID, FCPS students have been slowly choosing to take their masks off. This year, a few students still choose to wear theirs for various reasons, while most others decide to not wear masks. Most students took theirs off at a collective time last year and have chosen to continue that decision this year. FCPS has been changing over time, now going back to pre-COVID conditions. This transition is bringing students back to how normal school would’ve been.
