Governor Ned Lamont announced on Feb. 7 that the statewide mask mandate in schools and child care centers would be lifted on March 28. School districts and each individual school then were able to determine whether or not they wanted their students to remain in masks or not. 

With lots of people having already received the vaccine and or booster shot and the decrease of cases, it would make sense for most school districts to lift their schools mask mandate. However, it may not have been smart for the Westport School District and Staples High School to lift its mask mandate as soon as they did.

The main reason Staples should have waited a little bit longer to lift it’s mask mandate is because we are just coming off of a vacation week. During the week of February vacation many Staples students traveled with their families, some even going out of the country. With all that vacation entails, it could increase the risk of students either catching Covid and getting sick, or spreading it to others upon return to school. The fact that there were so many families that have gone away in the past week just increases the chances of Covid coming back with them.

Another reason that Staples should have waited to lift the mask mandate is for athletes. Many athletes for the winter sports season are now going into their post/championship  seasons. If they were to catch Covid, with the current rules in place, they could be excluded from their activities and miss the opportunity to win championships and compete for their final times this season. Especially for seniors who won’t get the opportunity to compete in high school winter sports ever again, it’s just not right to do this to them. Especially if they’re not planning on playing sports in college they should not be stripped of these last few experiences in high school.

With these two factors, I believe that Staples should have waited to lift the mask mandate for a few more weeks. This situation is difficult because it’s not like there’s the ability to stay home and still attend classes online like there was last school year. The purpose of the mask is to protect others, so although removing the masks seems like a great idea, it may come at the comfort and safety of others regardless of if they were a mask or not.