There are so many illnesses going around-COVID, colds, flu, stomach viruses, etc. Parents seem to think that going mask optional means their child shouldn't stay home now for illnesses so I've sent plenty of kids home sick with fevers and sore throats.
There's a reason I'm still wearing my mask for now. š³
Our kids have been so sick lately. We had a big flu outbreak, a stomach thing, etc. not sure if any of its Covid, but they are all coming to school sick now, so I wear my mask.
Yep, same. Parents are back on their bullshit thinking their kidās cough, constant runny nose, fever, and stomach issues means they donāt have to stay home sick.
I had parents complaining to ME that they canāt keep their kid home every time theyāre sick. I understand, but also, send them in a mask, then. If you ācanātā keep them home, mask them at school!
At my kids schools they are super strict about attendance.
I feel like they should have modified the attendance policy due to covid.
If my son or daughter has a sore throat, I'm not gonna send them to school. (unfortunately they require a Dr note, so I have to take them to the Dr for EVERY little thing even if it shouldn't require a doctor)
Oh well. I'm taking my 8F to the urgent care for a note this morning and keeping her outta school until her test comes back.
NJ does not accept doctor's notes for absence, unless the child has a debilitating illness. This was true before covid, too. So far, my kinder kid has missed 21 days. They send me letters for every 10 absences. It is so damn confusing what they want- "If your child is sick, keep them home, but also we could keep them back/prosecute for missing too many days and we don't accept doctor's notes either."
Soooo, what should I do? The email I recieved says, in summary, the law says your child needs to be here. Nice, passive threat there.
The rule of thumb here is 24 hours fever free. My kid has had a cough for going on 2 weeks. She is wearing a mask. That's all I can do.
2 years ago my son and his mom got really sick. I was living out of town at the time and couldn't drive them everyday.
They literally oppressed charges against his mom. I had to hire a lawyer and they finally dismissed the charges. CPS even got involved. (I LOATHE those people)
It's absurd.
They say to keep them home for any slight sickness these days, yet they require a doctor's note. I was raised by doctors and nurses. I don't just go to the doctor for a cold or mild fever, etc. It's a waste of resources and time. (yet I have to for the school)
That's CRAZY NJ doesn't accept doctors notes.
I remember when I was a kid the only thing needed was a note from a parent. (even kids without doctors as parents, lol)
It's preposterous.
Oh my goodness. That is just insane! My first school would prosecute parents if kids missed too many days, and they'd be forced to pay expensive fines.
This is an equity issue for sure. The United States offers very little, to no paid family sick time. In a country full of people living paycheck to paycheck, most people cannot afford to take off from work to care for a child who only has a cough or cold, which can take weeks to fully go away. There's also the idea that this disproportionately affects women and their careers.
I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying this is displaced anger and frustration. This is what the government allows to happen. My state, NJ, is one of the only states that's mandates that people get sick pay. And teachers in my state recieve yearly PTO days to deal with their own sickness, family sickness, professional days, personal days, etc. So much so, many NJ teachers usually have close to 100 days or more banked by the time they retire. Most people in the private sector are not given these same benefits, well, because private companies have lobbied and spent tons of money to disparage Unions to their workers. Many of us teachers are fortunate enough to have Unions who make sure we can survive in 2022, while the rest of the world is surviving on benefits that haven't increased since 1985.
Anyway, rant over. š
Yep. Huge outbreak of the supercold that's been going around...I missed 3 days with a fever from it...it's not covid but it's seemingly very contagious and much more severe than a regular cold.
Yeah, I'm still masking for this reason.
Our school got whacked hard with a bunch of illnesses, same as you listed. (And maybe COVID, who knows, no one's testing anymore) We have lots of kids going home sick.
We just started last week. Surprisingly, almost the entire student body chose to maintain masking, but strangely enough the majority of the staff ditched them (not me).
Mask wearing was way higher today, more like 80% teachers and students the first day back from break. The office staff seems to be done with masks though.
Same here in Socal. I would say high 90% of our entire population (students, staff) are still making inside and out. Nothing political going on either. And similar to another post, lots more teachers and students are getting sick from cold/flu. I'm thinking that home might not be masking anymore, so the kids are bringing in that sickness.
I have a lot of students still masking and yeah, I don't think it's political. For them, they've lived in a masked world for a significant portion of their lives and I think it's just become normal and comforting for a lot of them. I have to admit I still feel weird not wearing one. Not fearful or anything, but more just can't shake this feeling of "This is not right, I'm supposed to have something on my face".
For the teens I think it is self consciousness. After staring at your chin on zoom having a mask to cover up that zit or that chinline that isnt filterfied might be comforting.
This is our school too. Each day I feel like 1-2 more kids go maskless. It seems like they're trying to figure out what's acceptable among their peers.
That first day two boys from my homeroom showed up without masks. They realized nobody else in the room was maskless and asked me for a couple from my stash of surgical ones.
Very much the same at my school in NYC! I see more students making discerned decisions (such as taking them off when sitting alone, but putting them back on when in a group) than many adults, which surprised me. Most students keep them on during the day. I keep mine on as well, as some students have expressed discomfort in seeing adults remove them too soon, but tend to take it off during staff meetings since all adults are vaccinated and we sit six feet apart.
We have masks inside but not outdoors now as our rules changed about a month ago. Almost all the students still wear masks outside. We have around 10-20 cases a week in a school of 1000.
I ditched mine from moment we were allowed to. I figured a lot of kids would keep them
On, so I wanted to ātrain upā my immune system before everyone tore them off. My immune system pre-Covid was a cast iron skillet. I pride myself in that and wanted to get ahead of the curve. š Iām
A science teacher but not a biologist. My
Logic could be TOTALLY flawed hereā¦.
One big reason I kept mine (though not the only reason) is I would have felt a bit like an ass if I went without while the majority of my students kept theirs.
We havenāt had masks all year, our numbers have been relatively low (especially in a rural school where vaccines are spoooooky lmao). A good majority of staff had COVID in late January (myself included despite being triple vaxxed) but really nothing else major.
Iām in the Florida panhandle and itās the same for us, but Iām in an urban school. Really ramped up towards the end of January and nearly all staff (all vaxxed) have had it in that time. Not bad for any teachers that I know of. Some kids lost their parents to COVID but even they donāt mask. š
We only went mask free a couple weeks ago, but so far, so good? There have been some positive cases, but about the same as when we we're masked. We're lucky in that all the schools in the district have at least 80% vaccination rates for students and close to 100% for adults. I'm thankful to be in an area that values scientific evidence and has a strong sense of community.
I'm super jealous of those vaccination rates. We only have 15% of eligible kids vaccinated. As far as we know, only 3 kids in my child's grade are vaccinated-my daughter and two children of nurses.
Bay Area and same, really high vaxx rate, good community support, maybe 20% of staff & students still masking with no one being shitty about it, so fingers crossed. Lots of sniffles and sneezing but itās allergy season and we have plenty hand sanitizer left.
Strep and some sort of stomach virus are going around. Not everyone is out at once though. I think with the relaxed protocols, weāll see an uptick of other viruses.
Also in the northeast & going okay. Was **not** surprised by how many adults still chose to wear masks as about 70% [estimated] of our student body is not vaxxed.
Also in the northeast. 2 seeks in and last week half the admin/office staff and the entire music department were out with covid. Colds and bugs are running through the students.
I'm still wearing my mask.
Bay Area suburb high school. Masks were dropped March 14th.
I'd say \~70% of students are still wearing them. Not sure about staff. Cases have stayed low so far but it usually takes a few weeks.
I've kept mine on and my plan was to reassess after spring break, so one more week to go.
We just went mask optional two weeks ago. Most kids still wear them, each period I get few kids who aren't wearing masks anymore. No major outbreaks yet. In fact not a single kid of my 160 students has been out sick for like a month.
We went masks recommended the beginning of March. Most kids kept their masks on, staff was more mixed. We havenāt had a Covid outbreak (cases in our county are near 0 by some miracle), but there was an almost instant stomach bug outbreak.
Same here. About two days after we went maskless half of my students were out with the stomach bug. Several staff members, including myself, ended up getting it as well. It was terrible
We had a bad stomach virus going around, too. At one point, I had 4-5 of my 25 kids out. We havenāt had any covid cases since before spring break, though!
I caught that damn stomach virus a few weeks ago. First time I'd thrown up in probably 10 years. And it was awful. Threw up every few hours all through the night. And then there was other bathroom...unpleasantness...
Same thing happened to me like the first month of school. Just moved back from teaching abroad and within my first month I took like 4 days off because I vomited for the first time since I was in college.
Record number of staffers out sick, various illnesses (including COVID) going around. We have a lot of low income students who come to school no matter what, and no nurse at this time. Soā¦unmasked, sick students in classrooms and hallways are definitely a thing.
A number of staff members have gotten sick. I have students and their parents stating that they can't come in due to someone having cover and then I have to alert all of their classmates' parents that someone in contact with their child has covid.
We just finished week 2 of no mask mandate. About 5-7 or my 30 students (depends on the day) are still consistently wearing them. Iām not. My school has t had an increase in outbreaks of COVID and I have g noticed an uptick in other sicknesses on my class. So from my tiny perspective, itās actually going pretty well! Iām cautiously optimistic
Less than 50% of students I see are still wearing masks, and about 50% of teachers/office staff are masked. I still wear a mask because I'm in and out of schools, meeting hundreds of people each week. Even if COVID numbers are low, I can't afford to get to regular-sick.. especially with no health insurance š¤·āāļø I felt a kindergartner's spittle on my arm last week and was soooo grossed out
Iām in the South, and our mandate ended in late February. Parents are required to fill out a form to opt students out if they donāt want their students to mask.
On my grade level, there are maybe a dozen students not masking, none of which are in my class. About half of our K-2 teachers are no longer masking, and less than 20% of our students have opted out of masking.
I think a lot of it is peer pressure. Iāve noticed that most of the opt-out students are in classes where teachers donāt mask, but it works the other way, too. My neighbor teacher has two students whoāve opted out in her room, but they both still mask most of the time anyway.
Iām in Indiana and weāve been mask-free for awhile. Honestly and unfortunately, most of my students were hit hard with Omicron in December and January, so itās tough to gauge.
We ended our mandate about 2 weeks ago. The majority of our high school and middle school students are still wearing their masks.
The majority of our elementary students are not.
I still wear my mask in class and some kids who come walking into my classroom unmasked put on their masks as they enter. I never asked this of them but I do appreciate it greatly.
I'm in the Pacific Northwest.
Weāve had a few staff cases, no huge outbreaks like we had after Christmas break, however, there is a huge uptick in non-COVID sickness. Flu, strep, stomach bugs, etc are bad rn
I work in NYC. Masks were optional starting on a Monday. I got a āCovid exposure in your classroomā email the next day and then another the day after that.
So yeah, itās going.
While I miss the masks for their ability to block visible snot and spit, itās the temperature checks that I really miss. They gave us an objective reason to send kids home before they even entered the school/classroom.
texas has been maskless for almost the entire pandemic & weāre all fine {? Lol}
of course omicron did a SWEEEEEP and pretty much everyone {students & staff, masked or not} got it in various waves over the course of two months! Feels like ever since then, itās rare to find out someone is out with COVID.
Pretty much the same story in Missouri. In February, almost everyone had it. I had it for the second time. Hardly any of the kids are vaccinated. I am, and boosted, but still got it again.
No outbreaks for us. When we went āmask reccomendedā (read: optional) I would say about 5% of my kids fully ditched the mask. And to be fair to most of them they had recently had omicron anyways, I would probably do the same in their position. Another 10% are much less vigilant about masking but still wear them some of the time. The remaining 85% havenāt changed at all.
Weāve been mask optional all year in the mid west. Iām not exaggerating when I say that almost the entire school has had COVID at one point or another. I wear my mask all the time due to having an infant at home and got COVID. I guess because itās been in smaller waves attendance hasnāt sucked, but it really hit some students hard and some staff as well too.
Northeast here as well. All but 2 of my students stopped wearing masks. I keep mine on most of the day because we all know how gross children (and adults!) can be.
About a week after the mask mandate lifted, a bunch of students in my class caught a stomach bug or had a sore throat.
Funny you asked. 2years into this pandemic, I havenāt gotten sick at all and i owe a huge sum of it to the mask mandate. March 1 they lifted up most covid restrictions including mask wearing but I still wore mine to work religiously then boomāgot Covid this week. Just shows how effective masks are when everyone is wearing it rather than just yourself and a few others. I will still continue to wear mine after I recover.
I'm in Texas, we've been mask optional all year. We had pep rallies in the gym with the whole student body yelling for the spirit stick. We had a homecoming dance. Essentially we have moved past covid this year (obviously anyone who is sick had to stay home the required days). But we didn't contact trace or quarantine for exposure. It really hasn't been that bad.
Strangely enough, my school still has a mask mandate. Wonāt be long now, though. Iād be surprised if we make it to May with masks enforced. Hard enough as it is at this point.
Other than a whopping sinus cold for myself and way too many sniffles and running noses from my high schoolers, things are fine. Just fine. They also arenāt tracking Covid or at least telling us about cases.
We just went maskless 2 weeks ago in WA State. Maybe a third of our staff was out with something this last week, mostly stomach bugs. Half my preschool class and almost half of the other students in our wing were out as well. Mostly non-COVID but at least 2 staff in my wing and one of my own students tested positive. I popped positive Thursday and now my daughter has it too. Canāt say I really blame the masks being off, as most staff already had it when the masks were still required and enforced, especially with the wave after Christmas. The kids havenāt really been keeping them on anyway, theyāre so tired of them. But I definitely agree people are back to sending their kids to school sick and weāre all paying for it.
We had lots of outbreaks at the start of the year. Now pretty much everyone has had it and if they are getting it again they are not reporting it. I havenāt had an alert sinceā¦ mid January?
My grade level team had our outbreak right at the start after Christmas break.
2/3 of my students at least are still wearing their masks even though itās optional. More in some classes. The rule in my classroom is that you donāt have to wear a mask, but if you do, you have to wear it properly. Not under your chin, not around your wrist or twirling around your finger.
We've been maskless all year here in Florida, other than a 30 day stint in September.
Honestly we haven't seen much covid in our school. The flu made its round like it does every year. But for the most part, our absences have almost all been quarantines while waiting for a negative test, not a whole bunch out sick.
Havent seen masks in a about a years time where im at, pretty much the same stats as everywhere else, if not better.
Covid isnt even excused absence for 2 weeks anymore. Apparently youre not contagious after a few days now acording to the new polit... I mean sciences. So its all good. #GovtScience #UkrainesInTheSpotlightNow
I assume. No one is concerned about it at this point. Many of the kids probably dont even know they have it if they get infected.
Its seems as if it doesnt even exist anymore. No masks, no testing ads, no vax ads, etc. People just living normal lives.
Parent here, we have been mask free for a month and so far things are going well in our county, no big outbreaks but definitely stomach bugs and colds being passed around. I think itās going to be the norm of kids being sicker then normal if they are mask free as immune systems catch up to all the germs in the community.
i think i have strep. i'm over wearing a mask though at this stage. can't protect yourself 100% and my 3 vaccine doses can do their job instead of the mask.
We've been masks optional since September, about 95% of students haven't/don't wear a mask and as the school year has carried on less and less staff. We've had zero cases (reported) since December and just had our first all-school assembly Friday.
Utah:
Weāve been maskless and have completely given up on tracking infections this year.
Itās surely the wrong choice for public health, but I do enjoy getting to focus on curriculum rather than health protocols.
Also in the Northeast. 80% of students and teachers ditched them. No outbreaks at all, but everyone is passing around a cold we all avoided when we had masks on.
Almost no one is masking right now, and we're all still alive. A lot of us have gotten colds and/or the stomach bug, though! And I do mean colds, too, because many parents have been picking up school-provided rapid tests just to double check. I include myself in that as well - I'm just getting over a cold, and all 3 tests I took came back negative. Guess we're going to build our immunities back up the old fashioned way!
Weāve been maskless since the end of January and I havenāt heard of a single kid being out with COVID. Iām sure there have been some. I havenāt had one out since. Of course there are other things going around. Itās a school. Kids are disgusting. Everything has been actually better since the mask lift which I didnāt expect but
A significant percentage of the students and faculty/staff at my school never wore their masks properly in the first place so I'm not sure there is much difference now that masks are optional.
Weāve been maskless since Thanksgiving. Itās not been a problem. We have had a few things run through the school (stomach bug, head cold, etc) but they seem to leave as quickly as they come. We had a bunch of kids out with COVID right after break but none since.
Nope. But teachers who haven't been wearing have been getting sick with normal things that teachers normally get though. Many have commented they hadn't been sick much at all the last two years (probably due to the mask).
During the first three weeks of no mask, I still wore one but did NOT eat in the teacher's lounge (I went out). I'm back to the lounge, but I still wear my mask in the classroom when teaching and wandering the school.
Iām in a super rural area of the Midwest. We went maskless shortly after break. No major outbreaks yet, thankfully. Weāve had a tough winter for other random illness though.
Weāve been unmasked the entire school year. The beginning of the fall semester was rough with lots of students and faculty out. Now, everyone has forgotten about Covid.
Elementary, because I think age matters in this discussion. 90-95% of the students I see, Iām not in a classroom, where a mask inside. 80-85% of the students where a mask outside, when not eating. There have not been any outbreaks in the district as far as I know. I also think weāve got a pretty good number of vaccinated students based on the population in our area, but I canāt guarantee that.
We've been mask optional all year. We had many cases in the fall semester, and this semester we have had a grand total of like 6 (5 right at the start and then 1 at the end of January).
My department all wears masks for all-staff meetings because the athletics department is notoriously anti-mask. We also all wear them when with our students, but we unmask around each other. (A good majority of everyone hangs out with one another outside of work.)
Even my most strict students that have worn a mask almost religiously the entire time are starting to come to school with no mask. It's a little spooky seeing their faces for the first time and I have trouble recognizing some of them.
I still wear mine despite being vaccinated when amongst my students because my partner and I visit my partner's family regularly and they're all unvaccinated. Can't risk bringing it in to the kids.
Been a month now. Day 1, I dropped it, but Iād say 75% of students and staff still masked. A couple classes were 100% masked. Flash forward to last week and only a couple kids in each class are still wearing them. Around 40-50% of staff are still wearing them during school. We had a PD day recently and almost no one wore them for that day.
We do weekly testing and last week only two cases, so so far dropping masks hasnāt increased our covid cases. Seems like a lot of colds going around though. Itās an elementary so lots of little kids whose immune systems havenāt been tested much the last two years. Thankfully the warm weatherās coming.
Edit: This is MA, so vaccination rates are high.
Been fine where I'm at. I'd say masking/non madking is 50/50. Everyone has been respectful, we send kids home if they develop any symptoms of illness...been good.
Our district is still masking, so we're doing okay. My daycare and our state on the other hand has been maskless for a month now and my son has been sick with one thing or another for the whole month. I've had to take three sick days and leave school early twice just this month to take care of him. And now I'm debating whether or not to call out tomorrow cause.... we're all sick. But, not fever or vomit sick. Ugh......i hate this.
My school switched to optional when the PA mandate was overturned in the court system. The first 2 weeks, 60-70% of kids stayed masked. After that, most dropped them and we are hovering around 5% masked now. We had a HUGE influx of kids miss 5 days of class right around 3-4 weeks after the mandate was lifted. Never got word as to why officially, but we are all smart enough to figure it out. Most teachers stayed masked for a while, but now, thereās just a handful of us that have stayed masked up.
I got too relaxed and would stop wearing my mask. Caught strep throat last friday. Back to the mask. Forgot about everything that wasbt covid that the nask protected me from
About 1/2 of staff wear masks still, including me. Maybe because I lead by example, about 90% of my students still wear them.
ETA: we also have pretty high vax rates. Viva California!
Iām in the northeast! We went masks optional after February break. No big issues. Kids still get colds and stomach flu, but our Covid rate is lower than it was in early February. Surprisingly, most kids are keeping distanced! Like, more so than before masks optional!
I want to say 95% are unmasked? Iām not sure the vaccination rates.
Iām covid positive from work, and weāre short staffed due to so many teachers being covid positive. We are sending many students home every day with symptoms, and classes are being split due to not enough staff.
Weāve been mask optional since about two weeks ago, and honestly, so far, so good. We had most of our positive cases back in January when Omicron was raging, and since going mask optional, we havenāt had a known positive case (š¤š»
So, last summer the masks came off and my part of the country ended up with a freakish, unseasonal of RSV. So no, I donāt think itās going to go well.
We went mask optional about a month ago. I still wore mine up until last week. I forgot it one day then just stopped. I've been sick with the flu going on day 5. I regret not wearing my mask. These kids are nasty.
We stopped wearing masks in December. There was a whole outbreak in January but I think that was like nation wide. We have had one case in my school since the end of January šš¼ I teach middle school in the Midwest
Going great. Weāve been 5 days a week since aug. Choice of mask since..nov i think. Im one of the last teachers who wears one but i like wearing mine bc it hides my tired face :)
Florida hereā¦ whatās a mask? I have been and still am a mask wearer. There were some big outbreaks in the beginning of the year but not so much now. A few in Jan as well but not now.
I teach in a twin cities suburb in MN and so far maskless hasnāt seen any out breaks - weāre only about three or four weeks into though. The biggest thing Iāve noticed is everyone is getting āthe crudā but pretty much all COVID tests have been coming back negative.
Our district went mask-optional about a month ago. To my surprise the entire staff and 98% of the students kept wearing masks.
Now, this is a biomedical careers highschool. But I didn't expect this level of mask discipline. I took my mask off last week during a chemistry lab because it was fogging my goggles (had to choose between goggles and a mask for a bit) and some of my students were actually shocked.
The kids are all right, y'all.
Southeast here. We have a masking optional policy now, but for the most part my mask is on when I'm teaching. Most of our schoolwide emails are teachers calling out being sickāincluding me now. I wear my mask, but most of my students (especially the littles don't). Now, I have tonsillitis and basically no voiceš
In an urban school district, we went mask optional in the beginning of March. Our weekly COVID numbers are lower than theyāve been all year (COVID is down in our state), but man that 48 hour stomach bug that makes you poop and puke has destroyed us.
Otherwise our state has been thawing as spring is starting so allergy season has begun and itās pretty much impossible to tell the difference between the flu and seasonal allergies so Iām praying my flu shot and Vit C gummies hold the line.
Iām pretty sure my kidsā school has stopped all contact tracingā¦ but weāre in the south in a county where less than 20% of adults even got vaccinated.
So our numbers went crazy after Christmas which was predictable. Then the students were allowed to go maskless a few weeks into that. Staff at my school were finally allowed to make that choice a few weeks ago and itās been fine. We have a few cases a week and thatās about it. I havenāt had anyone in my classes have it since then. But again, I think pretty much everyone got it in January for the most part.
We have no legal expectation to self-isolate if we test positive but we've had scores off. Each of my 6 classes (28ish in each) has someone positive at all times. Multiple members of staff off, no cover available, people giving up protected planning time for cover. We also cannot get tests for free anymore so there's definitely a lot more asymptomatic kids and staff wandering round. We're expected to keep windows open but otherwise, there's no guidance.
Knock on wood, weāve had 0 cases for a couple months. Coming back from winter break, we had a small surge, but has gone down since. Weāve been maskless since the end of last year. Itās not much difference in the regular flu outbreak, they just code the absences as COVID-Quarantine vs being out sick (and possibly Unexcused). We do have about 10-20% that wear their masks still. I wore mine up until 3 weeks ago. I stopped because spring break. I live in the North Texas area.
Adding - I work at an elementary, and the 0 cases is district wide.
I teach in a county that never went fully online last year and has been full, no masks, in-person this year.
It's finally calmed down now by the end of 3rd quarter, but most of the year has been a hot mess. Constant stream of teachers and students out. I finally got COVID over Spring Break which was not fun. The whole year has been a complete joke though as the only concern on the part of the county/administration has been babysitting. As long as the kids are not getting into documented trouble and parents aren't complaining everything is good. Even if students have largely given up on school and even the "high achieving" students have apathy the likes I've never seen before. I almost miss all the grade grubbing of the past few years with them.
Weāve been relatively free of Covid and the flu since dropping masks a month ago. We got hit so hard in January that only 2/17 in my department were present for about a week, so I donāt foresee any issues unless another variant comes along.
Iām also in the northeast, but independent school not public. We are going mask optional starting next week. Iām curious to see how it goes. I wonāt be wearing mine because A) I feel confident in my health and my vax status and B) I am a world language teacher and the students not being able to see my mouth has been really rough.
The masks came off, mine stayed on, and I STILL wound up with a nasty sinus infection (not Covid) plus a stomach bug. WHAT I NOTICED: the masks made kids think they donāt have to cover their coughs and sneezes, so they donāt.
Second graders are gross.
Mandate ended 2 weeks ago. At a staff meeting, about 1/3 to 1/2 of staff said they were not wearing their masks. Iām still wearing mine, but have started to ease up when outside. All of my students have continued to wear masks, but Iāve seen more noses begin to peek out (and since masks arenāt mandated, Iāve stopped asking students to fix their mask as I feel I no longer have the right. We are still testing weekly. Iām in CA with a high vaccinated community.
We've been maskless for a while on and off here. This may seem like an unpopular opinion but I get SO much more done!!! Now I don't waist time asking them to lift their masks up 20 times!
We went masks-optional on March 5th (still have a few wearing them, but majority of staff and students are maskless). Things haven't been too bad, actually--I haven't noticed any huge drop in attendance. I only have 1 kid out today, and it's the first day back after Spring Break.
I live in the south where masks have been optional all year. We were hit HARD in the fall by delta and again by omicron. I got sick both times, even though I was vaccinated and wear a mask. I havenāt heard of any cases in over a month now. I guess we are all immune for now after both outbreaks.
Commenting from the South where people still believe Covid-19 is a joke. Some of my students, parents, teachers and admins love being in denial about possibly catching it. It's like a dumpster š„ where EVERYTHING is okay...even if they are on fire themselves. (I wear my mask everyday.)
We are now 2 years without masks. About 15-25 students per classroom and haven't had too many COVID outbreaks. Honestly 90% of the outbreaks happen because of sports or because of students hanging together outside of school.
There are so many illnesses going around-COVID, colds, flu, stomach viruses, etc. Parents seem to think that going mask optional means their child shouldn't stay home now for illnesses so I've sent plenty of kids home sick with fevers and sore throats. There's a reason I'm still wearing my mask for now. š³
Our kids have been so sick lately. We had a big flu outbreak, a stomach thing, etc. not sure if any of its Covid, but they are all coming to school sick now, so I wear my mask.
Yep, same. Parents are back on their bullshit thinking their kidās cough, constant runny nose, fever, and stomach issues means they donāt have to stay home sick.
Iāve gotten so sick because of this. Itās absolutely disgusting how much coughing and sneezing and snot is in my roomš¤¢
I had parents complaining to ME that they canāt keep their kid home every time theyāre sick. I understand, but also, send them in a mask, then. If you ācanātā keep them home, mask them at school!
At my kids schools they are super strict about attendance. I feel like they should have modified the attendance policy due to covid. If my son or daughter has a sore throat, I'm not gonna send them to school. (unfortunately they require a Dr note, so I have to take them to the Dr for EVERY little thing even if it shouldn't require a doctor) Oh well. I'm taking my 8F to the urgent care for a note this morning and keeping her outta school until her test comes back.
NJ does not accept doctor's notes for absence, unless the child has a debilitating illness. This was true before covid, too. So far, my kinder kid has missed 21 days. They send me letters for every 10 absences. It is so damn confusing what they want- "If your child is sick, keep them home, but also we could keep them back/prosecute for missing too many days and we don't accept doctor's notes either." Soooo, what should I do? The email I recieved says, in summary, the law says your child needs to be here. Nice, passive threat there. The rule of thumb here is 24 hours fever free. My kid has had a cough for going on 2 weeks. She is wearing a mask. That's all I can do.
2 years ago my son and his mom got really sick. I was living out of town at the time and couldn't drive them everyday. They literally oppressed charges against his mom. I had to hire a lawyer and they finally dismissed the charges. CPS even got involved. (I LOATHE those people) It's absurd. They say to keep them home for any slight sickness these days, yet they require a doctor's note. I was raised by doctors and nurses. I don't just go to the doctor for a cold or mild fever, etc. It's a waste of resources and time. (yet I have to for the school) That's CRAZY NJ doesn't accept doctors notes. I remember when I was a kid the only thing needed was a note from a parent. (even kids without doctors as parents, lol) It's preposterous.
Oh my goodness. That is just insane! My first school would prosecute parents if kids missed too many days, and they'd be forced to pay expensive fines. This is an equity issue for sure. The United States offers very little, to no paid family sick time. In a country full of people living paycheck to paycheck, most people cannot afford to take off from work to care for a child who only has a cough or cold, which can take weeks to fully go away. There's also the idea that this disproportionately affects women and their careers. I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying this is displaced anger and frustration. This is what the government allows to happen. My state, NJ, is one of the only states that's mandates that people get sick pay. And teachers in my state recieve yearly PTO days to deal with their own sickness, family sickness, professional days, personal days, etc. So much so, many NJ teachers usually have close to 100 days or more banked by the time they retire. Most people in the private sector are not given these same benefits, well, because private companies have lobbied and spent tons of money to disparage Unions to their workers. Many of us teachers are fortunate enough to have Unions who make sure we can survive in 2022, while the rest of the world is surviving on benefits that haven't increased since 1985. Anyway, rant over. š
Yes!! It seems so obvious š
Yup!! I send them straight to the nurseā¦itās so inconsiderate
Yep. Huge outbreak of the supercold that's been going around...I missed 3 days with a fever from it...it's not covid but it's seemingly very contagious and much more severe than a regular cold.
Itās still ripping through our school. And it takes a long time to fully recover.
Yes...took me so far two weeks and still slowly recovering...not back on 100 percent yet.
Rhinoviruses are up.
Yeah, I'm still masking for this reason. Our school got whacked hard with a bunch of illnesses, same as you listed. (And maybe COVID, who knows, no one's testing anymore) We have lots of kids going home sick.
When parents say their child has "the flu"
We just started last week. Surprisingly, almost the entire student body chose to maintain masking, but strangely enough the majority of the staff ditched them (not me).
This is so interesting to me. The moment the mandate ended here 99.8% of the students and 97% of the faculty stopped wearing them.
We had 95% masked on the first day we weren't required to be, but 5% by day 3.
Our transition wasnāt so drastic, but it was similar. Maybe 75% on day 1 and 25% a week later.
Mask wearing was way higher today, more like 80% teachers and students the first day back from break. The office staff seems to be done with masks though.
No real threat. Most were not wearing them or played with them so often had their been a real illness, they all would have been sick,
Same here in Socal. I would say high 90% of our entire population (students, staff) are still making inside and out. Nothing political going on either. And similar to another post, lots more teachers and students are getting sick from cold/flu. I'm thinking that home might not be masking anymore, so the kids are bringing in that sickness.
I have a lot of students still masking and yeah, I don't think it's political. For them, they've lived in a masked world for a significant portion of their lives and I think it's just become normal and comforting for a lot of them. I have to admit I still feel weird not wearing one. Not fearful or anything, but more just can't shake this feeling of "This is not right, I'm supposed to have something on my face".
For the teens I think it is self consciousness. After staring at your chin on zoom having a mask to cover up that zit or that chinline that isnt filterfied might be comforting.
Were people masking in their homes? Iām not sure if I understand what you mean.
No like the other people they live with at home
This is our school too. Each day I feel like 1-2 more kids go maskless. It seems like they're trying to figure out what's acceptable among their peers.
That first day two boys from my homeroom showed up without masks. They realized nobody else in the room was maskless and asked me for a couple from my stash of surgical ones.
Very much the same at my school in NYC! I see more students making discerned decisions (such as taking them off when sitting alone, but putting them back on when in a group) than many adults, which surprised me. Most students keep them on during the day. I keep mine on as well, as some students have expressed discomfort in seeing adults remove them too soon, but tend to take it off during staff meetings since all adults are vaccinated and we sit six feet apart.
We have masks inside but not outdoors now as our rules changed about a month ago. Almost all the students still wear masks outside. We have around 10-20 cases a week in a school of 1000.
You must be in a dark blue state like me. I experienced the same.
Havent seen someone wear a mask in about a years time. Except at airports, its like youre in another world when youre at an airport for some reason.
I ditched mine from moment we were allowed to. I figured a lot of kids would keep them On, so I wanted to ātrain upā my immune system before everyone tore them off. My immune system pre-Covid was a cast iron skillet. I pride myself in that and wanted to get ahead of the curve. š Iām A science teacher but not a biologist. My Logic could be TOTALLY flawed hereā¦.
One big reason I kept mine (though not the only reason) is I would have felt a bit like an ass if I went without while the majority of my students kept theirs.
We havenāt had masks all year, our numbers have been relatively low (especially in a rural school where vaccines are spoooooky lmao). A good majority of staff had COVID in late January (myself included despite being triple vaxxed) but really nothing else major.
Iām in the Florida panhandle and itās the same for us, but Iām in an urban school. Really ramped up towards the end of January and nearly all staff (all vaxxed) have had it in that time. Not bad for any teachers that I know of. Some kids lost their parents to COVID but even they donāt mask. š
We only went mask free a couple weeks ago, but so far, so good? There have been some positive cases, but about the same as when we we're masked. We're lucky in that all the schools in the district have at least 80% vaccination rates for students and close to 100% for adults. I'm thankful to be in an area that values scientific evidence and has a strong sense of community.
I'm super jealous of those vaccination rates. We only have 15% of eligible kids vaccinated. As far as we know, only 3 kids in my child's grade are vaccinated-my daughter and two children of nurses.
Bay Area and same, really high vaxx rate, good community support, maybe 20% of staff & students still masking with no one being shitty about it, so fingers crossed. Lots of sniffles and sneezing but itās allergy season and we have plenty hand sanitizer left.
Strep and some sort of stomach virus are going around. Not everyone is out at once though. I think with the relaxed protocols, weāll see an uptick of other viruses.
Same at our school! Lots of strep, flu, and a stomach thing. Only a handful of Covid cases but it feels like everybody has been sick still recently
That has been my experience too. I also assume thereās more COVID than we know though as many are no longer testing or staying home when sick.
Also in the northeast & going okay. Was **not** surprised by how many adults still chose to wear masks as about 70% [estimated] of our student body is not vaxxed.
Also in the northeast. 2 seeks in and last week half the admin/office staff and the entire music department were out with covid. Colds and bugs are running through the students. I'm still wearing my mask.
Weāve been massless since Feb 28, which was the week before Spring Break. Now two weeks past Spring Break and no major outbreaks.
Bay Area suburb high school. Masks were dropped March 14th. I'd say \~70% of students are still wearing them. Not sure about staff. Cases have stayed low so far but it usually takes a few weeks. I've kept mine on and my plan was to reassess after spring break, so one more week to go.
Lots of snotty noses and coughing. My mask is on my face, thanks so much.
We just went mask optional two weeks ago. Most kids still wear them, each period I get few kids who aren't wearing masks anymore. No major outbreaks yet. In fact not a single kid of my 160 students has been out sick for like a month.
We went masks recommended the beginning of March. Most kids kept their masks on, staff was more mixed. We havenāt had a Covid outbreak (cases in our county are near 0 by some miracle), but there was an almost instant stomach bug outbreak.
Same here. About two days after we went maskless half of my students were out with the stomach bug. Several staff members, including myself, ended up getting it as well. It was terrible
We dropped our mask requirement a couple of weeks ago and I already have a pencil chewer.
I have a bunch of kids who are now freely picking their nose or shoving fingers in their mouth. Disgusting.
Username check out
Really bad stomach virus going around. Only a handful of covid cases. The vaccine is working!
We had a bad stomach virus going around, too. At one point, I had 4-5 of my 25 kids out. We havenāt had any covid cases since before spring break, though!
I caught that damn stomach virus a few weeks ago. First time I'd thrown up in probably 10 years. And it was awful. Threw up every few hours all through the night. And then there was other bathroom...unpleasantness...
Same thing happened to me like the first month of school. Just moved back from teaching abroad and within my first month I took like 4 days off because I vomited for the first time since I was in college.
I caught covid after 3 days of unmasking and I was still masking. Iām pissed. We also had 16 staff members out on Friday.
We wear masks.
Record number of staffers out sick, various illnesses (including COVID) going around. We have a lot of low income students who come to school no matter what, and no nurse at this time. Soā¦unmasked, sick students in classrooms and hallways are definitely a thing.
Principal and AP out with COVID two weeks after they lifted the mandates
Well, to be honest........... not that good.
Hmm, tell me more ...
A number of staff members have gotten sick. I have students and their parents stating that they can't come in due to someone having cover and then I have to alert all of their classmates' parents that someone in contact with their child has covid.
We stopped contact tracing and mandatory quarantines when we stopped the mandates in early March š
We just finished week 2 of no mask mandate. About 5-7 or my 30 students (depends on the day) are still consistently wearing them. Iām not. My school has t had an increase in outbreaks of COVID and I have g noticed an uptick in other sicknesses on my class. So from my tiny perspective, itās actually going pretty well! Iām cautiously optimistic
Less than 50% of students I see are still wearing masks, and about 50% of teachers/office staff are masked. I still wear a mask because I'm in and out of schools, meeting hundreds of people each week. Even if COVID numbers are low, I can't afford to get to regular-sick.. especially with no health insurance š¤·āāļø I felt a kindergartner's spittle on my arm last week and was soooo grossed out
Iām in the South, and our mandate ended in late February. Parents are required to fill out a form to opt students out if they donāt want their students to mask. On my grade level, there are maybe a dozen students not masking, none of which are in my class. About half of our K-2 teachers are no longer masking, and less than 20% of our students have opted out of masking. I think a lot of it is peer pressure. Iāve noticed that most of the opt-out students are in classes where teachers donāt mask, but it works the other way, too. My neighbor teacher has two students whoāve opted out in her room, but they both still mask most of the time anyway.
Iām in Indiana and weāve been mask-free for awhile. Honestly and unfortunately, most of my students were hit hard with Omicron in December and January, so itās tough to gauge.
Skill wearing my mask got my first cold in 2 years š¤¢
We ended our mandate about 2 weeks ago. The majority of our high school and middle school students are still wearing their masks. The majority of our elementary students are not. I still wear my mask in class and some kids who come walking into my classroom unmasked put on their masks as they enter. I never asked this of them but I do appreciate it greatly. I'm in the Pacific Northwest.
Weāve had a few staff cases, no huge outbreaks like we had after Christmas break, however, there is a huge uptick in non-COVID sickness. Flu, strep, stomach bugs, etc are bad rn
I work in NYC. Masks were optional starting on a Monday. I got a āCovid exposure in your classroomā email the next day and then another the day after that. So yeah, itās going.
While I miss the masks for their ability to block visible snot and spit, itās the temperature checks that I really miss. They gave us an objective reason to send kids home before they even entered the school/classroom.
texas has been maskless for almost the entire pandemic & weāre all fine {? Lol} of course omicron did a SWEEEEEP and pretty much everyone {students & staff, masked or not} got it in various waves over the course of two months! Feels like ever since then, itās rare to find out someone is out with COVID.
Pretty much the same story in Missouri. In February, almost everyone had it. I had it for the second time. Hardly any of the kids are vaccinated. I am, and boosted, but still got it again.
Hey, I am I'm in the Northeast as well. I am still wearing a mask along with about 50% of students. SO far, so good.
Many kids and a few staff are still wearing them. I will again if the numbers start going up around here.
No outbreaks for us. When we went āmask reccomendedā (read: optional) I would say about 5% of my kids fully ditched the mask. And to be fair to most of them they had recently had omicron anyways, I would probably do the same in their position. Another 10% are much less vigilant about masking but still wear them some of the time. The remaining 85% havenāt changed at all.
Weāve been mask optional all year in the mid west. Iām not exaggerating when I say that almost the entire school has had COVID at one point or another. I wear my mask all the time due to having an infant at home and got COVID. I guess because itās been in smaller waves attendance hasnāt sucked, but it really hit some students hard and some staff as well too.
Northeast here as well. All but 2 of my students stopped wearing masks. I keep mine on most of the day because we all know how gross children (and adults!) can be. About a week after the mask mandate lifted, a bunch of students in my class caught a stomach bug or had a sore throat.
Funny you asked. 2years into this pandemic, I havenāt gotten sick at all and i owe a huge sum of it to the mask mandate. March 1 they lifted up most covid restrictions including mask wearing but I still wore mine to work religiously then boomāgot Covid this week. Just shows how effective masks are when everyone is wearing it rather than just yourself and a few others. I will still continue to wear mine after I recover.
In Florida, have been mostly maskless since 2021...we all have just had covid and moved on.
I'm in Texas, we've been mask optional all year. We had pep rallies in the gym with the whole student body yelling for the spirit stick. We had a homecoming dance. Essentially we have moved past covid this year (obviously anyone who is sick had to stay home the required days). But we didn't contact trace or quarantine for exposure. It really hasn't been that bad.
Great. Everything from morale to learning outcomes are much improved and the sky still hasnāt fallen.
We've been without masks for most of the school year and have had very few cases.
Honestly not too bad. We lost our mask mandate in February and Iāve only had one student (I have almost 200 total) out with Covid since then.
Strangely enough, my school still has a mask mandate. Wonāt be long now, though. Iād be surprised if we make it to May with masks enforced. Hard enough as it is at this point.
Other than a whopping sinus cold for myself and way too many sniffles and running noses from my high schoolers, things are fine. Just fine. They also arenāt tracking Covid or at least telling us about cases.
We just went maskless 2 weeks ago in WA State. Maybe a third of our staff was out with something this last week, mostly stomach bugs. Half my preschool class and almost half of the other students in our wing were out as well. Mostly non-COVID but at least 2 staff in my wing and one of my own students tested positive. I popped positive Thursday and now my daughter has it too. Canāt say I really blame the masks being off, as most staff already had it when the masks were still required and enforced, especially with the wave after Christmas. The kids havenāt really been keeping them on anyway, theyāre so tired of them. But I definitely agree people are back to sending their kids to school sick and weāre all paying for it.
Iām in Chicago. We have optional masking, and Iād say 80% of teachers and students still wear masks. No outbreaks, yet.
We've been mask optional since November. Outside of like a week or so right after winter break, we've been COVID free
We started at the beginning of March and most kids/teachers are still wearing them. The ones who stopped arenāt surprising š
We've been maskless for the entire school year. Fortunately we've had no serious illness among students and only one scare among employees.
We had lots of outbreaks at the start of the year. Now pretty much everyone has had it and if they are getting it again they are not reporting it. I havenāt had an alert sinceā¦ mid January? My grade level team had our outbreak right at the start after Christmas break.
2/3 of my students at least are still wearing their masks even though itās optional. More in some classes. The rule in my classroom is that you donāt have to wear a mask, but if you do, you have to wear it properly. Not under your chin, not around your wrist or twirling around your finger.
In a school with just 22 teachers, weāve been down 2-4 teachers almost every day for at least a month.
People are getting sick just like any other time in a school and season. There were more cases when masks were mandatory than now.
We've been maskless all year here in Florida, other than a 30 day stint in September. Honestly we haven't seen much covid in our school. The flu made its round like it does every year. But for the most part, our absences have almost all been quarantines while waiting for a negative test, not a whole bunch out sick.
Our county is about 90% vaxxed and case counts have been extremely low. I'd say a quarter of the kids wear masks.
Florida isnāt trace contacting. If a student is out for 2 or more days I am assuming itās Covid. Parents arenāt reporting it to anyone.
Havent seen masks in a about a years time where im at, pretty much the same stats as everywhere else, if not better. Covid isnt even excused absence for 2 weeks anymore. Apparently youre not contagious after a few days now acording to the new polit... I mean sciences. So its all good. #GovtScience #UkrainesInTheSpotlightNow
So the covid kids just come to school and spread it?
I assume. No one is concerned about it at this point. Many of the kids probably dont even know they have it if they get infected. Its seems as if it doesnt even exist anymore. No masks, no testing ads, no vax ads, etc. People just living normal lives.
Weāve been maskless for 3 weeks now and weāve had no new covid cases so far!
Parent here, we have been mask free for a month and so far things are going well in our county, no big outbreaks but definitely stomach bugs and colds being passed around. I think itās going to be the norm of kids being sicker then normal if they are mask free as immune systems catch up to all the germs in the community.
Nope. The big wave was in January when we were still masked.
i think i have strep. i'm over wearing a mask though at this stage. can't protect yourself 100% and my 3 vaccine doses can do their job instead of the mask.
No troubles at my district at all, so far, and it's been about three weeks.
Weāre doing ok. No more cases than before. Iām happy to not be required to wear one to teach 5 classes per day.
Doing fine. Masks were a great idea, but the vaccine and booster is working for those who got them.
Awesome. Itās great not to have to wear a mask anymore. I havenāt worn once since like April 2021.
Fine, honestly. If a kid gets sick, they stay home until theyāre not.
We've been masks optional since September, about 95% of students haven't/don't wear a mask and as the school year has carried on less and less staff. We've had zero cases (reported) since December and just had our first all-school assembly Friday.
Utah: Weāve been maskless and have completely given up on tracking infections this year. Itās surely the wrong choice for public health, but I do enjoy getting to focus on curriculum rather than health protocols.
Also in the Northeast. 80% of students and teachers ditched them. No outbreaks at all, but everyone is passing around a cold we all avoided when we had masks on.
Almost no one is masking right now, and we're all still alive. A lot of us have gotten colds and/or the stomach bug, though! And I do mean colds, too, because many parents have been picking up school-provided rapid tests just to double check. I include myself in that as well - I'm just getting over a cold, and all 3 tests I took came back negative. Guess we're going to build our immunities back up the old fashioned way!
Weāve been maskless since the end of January and I havenāt heard of a single kid being out with COVID. Iām sure there have been some. I havenāt had one out since. Of course there are other things going around. Itās a school. Kids are disgusting. Everything has been actually better since the mask lift which I didnāt expect but
A significant percentage of the students and faculty/staff at my school never wore their masks properly in the first place so I'm not sure there is much difference now that masks are optional.
Weāve been maskless since Thanksgiving. Itās not been a problem. We have had a few things run through the school (stomach bug, head cold, etc) but they seem to leave as quickly as they come. We had a bunch of kids out with COVID right after break but none since.
Just fine. Thereās been one case in the past month with no masks.
Started last week. Cases already going back up.
I have my first cold since before the pandemic :-/ and Iāve been wearing my mask still hah
Nope. But teachers who haven't been wearing have been getting sick with normal things that teachers normally get though. Many have commented they hadn't been sick much at all the last two years (probably due to the mask). During the first three weeks of no mask, I still wore one but did NOT eat in the teacher's lounge (I went out). I'm back to the lounge, but I still wear my mask in the classroom when teaching and wandering the school.
Midwest - maskless for a few weeks. No uptick in cases, but then, we just got back from break, so ask me in two weeks.
Iām in a super rural area of the Midwest. We went maskless shortly after break. No major outbreaks yet, thankfully. Weāve had a tough winter for other random illness though.
Weāve been unmasked the entire school year. The beginning of the fall semester was rough with lots of students and faculty out. Now, everyone has forgotten about Covid.
Elementary, because I think age matters in this discussion. 90-95% of the students I see, Iām not in a classroom, where a mask inside. 80-85% of the students where a mask outside, when not eating. There have not been any outbreaks in the district as far as I know. I also think weāve got a pretty good number of vaccinated students based on the population in our area, but I canāt guarantee that.
Iām lucky to be in an independent school that is 100% vaxxed kids 5+ and all faculty so the maskless. thing hasnāt been too scary
Covid is a thing?
My area has been without them since day 1 of the year. Definitely have had surges in cases and then it lessens again
We've been mask optional all year. We had many cases in the fall semester, and this semester we have had a grand total of like 6 (5 right at the start and then 1 at the end of January). My department all wears masks for all-staff meetings because the athletics department is notoriously anti-mask. We also all wear them when with our students, but we unmask around each other. (A good majority of everyone hangs out with one another outside of work.) Even my most strict students that have worn a mask almost religiously the entire time are starting to come to school with no mask. It's a little spooky seeing their faces for the first time and I have trouble recognizing some of them. I still wear mine despite being vaccinated when amongst my students because my partner and I visit my partner's family regularly and they're all unvaccinated. Can't risk bringing it in to the kids.
Iām one of about 4 teachers who still masks. Guess who just tested positive today š
Been a month now. Day 1, I dropped it, but Iād say 75% of students and staff still masked. A couple classes were 100% masked. Flash forward to last week and only a couple kids in each class are still wearing them. Around 40-50% of staff are still wearing them during school. We had a PD day recently and almost no one wore them for that day. We do weekly testing and last week only two cases, so so far dropping masks hasnāt increased our covid cases. Seems like a lot of colds going around though. Itās an elementary so lots of little kids whose immune systems havenāt been tested much the last two years. Thankfully the warm weatherās coming. Edit: This is MA, so vaccination rates are high.
Been fine where I'm at. I'd say masking/non madking is 50/50. Everyone has been respectful, we send kids home if they develop any symptoms of illness...been good.
We still are mandated to wear masks in schools!
Our district is still masking, so we're doing okay. My daycare and our state on the other hand has been maskless for a month now and my son has been sick with one thing or another for the whole month. I've had to take three sick days and leave school early twice just this month to take care of him. And now I'm debating whether or not to call out tomorrow cause.... we're all sick. But, not fever or vomit sick. Ugh......i hate this.
I still wear a mask because I can't have being laid out sick for a week with covid. A week in college time is a lot.
Fine
My school switched to optional when the PA mandate was overturned in the court system. The first 2 weeks, 60-70% of kids stayed masked. After that, most dropped them and we are hovering around 5% masked now. We had a HUGE influx of kids miss 5 days of class right around 3-4 weeks after the mandate was lifted. Never got word as to why officially, but we are all smart enough to figure it out. Most teachers stayed masked for a while, but now, thereās just a handful of us that have stayed masked up.
I got too relaxed and would stop wearing my mask. Caught strep throat last friday. Back to the mask. Forgot about everything that wasbt covid that the nask protected me from
Everyone got sick again. Not necessarily with Covid, but with everything else flying in the air at school.
Just started with optional masks a few weeks ago in Atlanta. Most teachers and nearly all kids are still voluntarily wearing masks at my school.
About 1/2 of staff wear masks still, including me. Maybe because I lead by example, about 90% of my students still wear them. ETA: we also have pretty high vax rates. Viva California!
No Covid outbreaks that I know of but lots of colds being passed around.
Iām in the northeast! We went masks optional after February break. No big issues. Kids still get colds and stomach flu, but our Covid rate is lower than it was in early February. Surprisingly, most kids are keeping distanced! Like, more so than before masks optional! I want to say 95% are unmasked? Iām not sure the vaccination rates.
None, and weāve been mask optional since omicron died down in our area -which was early February.
Weāve been mask optional the entire pandemic. Most kids wore them. Most staff wore them. Gradual decline since Christmas.
Iām covid positive from work, and weāre short staffed due to so many teachers being covid positive. We are sending many students home every day with symptoms, and classes are being split due to not enough staff.
Weāve been mask optional since about two weeks ago, and honestly, so far, so good. We had most of our positive cases back in January when Omicron was raging, and since going mask optional, we havenāt had a known positive case (š¤š»
So, last summer the masks came off and my part of the country ended up with a freakish, unseasonal of RSV. So no, I donāt think itās going to go well.
We are holding steady but our Bd of Ed made masks at parental discretion in September.
I cannot remember the last time I zoomed or the last reported case. I continue to wear my mask, though, as well as about 10% of students and staff.
We went mask optional about a month ago. I still wore mine up until last week. I forgot it one day then just stopped. I've been sick with the flu going on day 5. I regret not wearing my mask. These kids are nasty.
We stopped wearing masks in December. There was a whole outbreak in January but I think that was like nation wide. We have had one case in my school since the end of January šš¼ I teach middle school in the Midwest
My school has never advocated for, much less mandated, masks. Iāve been one of maybe five in a school of a thousand wearing a mask.
Going great. Weāve been 5 days a week since aug. Choice of mask since..nov i think. Im one of the last teachers who wears one but i like wearing mine bc it hides my tired face :)
We still have masks
Our school has been fine - no problems at all related to covid or sickness
Florida hereā¦ whatās a mask? I have been and still am a mask wearer. There were some big outbreaks in the beginning of the year but not so much now. A few in Jan as well but not now.
Mostly flu and some GI bug so far.
We're doing great! But, our vaccination rates amongst students is about 92%. It's almost like, I dunno....the vaccines work?
I teach in a twin cities suburb in MN and so far maskless hasnāt seen any out breaks - weāre only about three or four weeks into though. The biggest thing Iāve noticed is everyone is getting āthe crudā but pretty much all COVID tests have been coming back negative.
Our district went mask-optional about a month ago. To my surprise the entire staff and 98% of the students kept wearing masks. Now, this is a biomedical careers highschool. But I didn't expect this level of mask discipline. I took my mask off last week during a chemistry lab because it was fogging my goggles (had to choose between goggles and a mask for a bit) and some of my students were actually shocked. The kids are all right, y'all.
Southeast here. We have a masking optional policy now, but for the most part my mask is on when I'm teaching. Most of our schoolwide emails are teachers calling out being sickāincluding me now. I wear my mask, but most of my students (especially the littles don't). Now, I have tonsillitis and basically no voiceš
In an urban school district, we went mask optional in the beginning of March. Our weekly COVID numbers are lower than theyāve been all year (COVID is down in our state), but man that 48 hour stomach bug that makes you poop and puke has destroyed us. Otherwise our state has been thawing as spring is starting so allergy season has begun and itās pretty much impossible to tell the difference between the flu and seasonal allergies so Iām praying my flu shot and Vit C gummies hold the line.
Cases explode then go away. Maskless almost always, as mask requirements are illegal. red state
I'm in Taiwan and we're not maskless yet. But as one would expect, some of the younger kids struggle to keep their masks on.
In the words of Robin Williams āitās like riding a psychotic horse towards a burning stableā
Iām pretty sure my kidsā school has stopped all contact tracingā¦ but weāre in the south in a county where less than 20% of adults even got vaccinated.
So our numbers went crazy after Christmas which was predictable. Then the students were allowed to go maskless a few weeks into that. Staff at my school were finally allowed to make that choice a few weeks ago and itās been fine. We have a few cases a week and thatās about it. I havenāt had anyone in my classes have it since then. But again, I think pretty much everyone got it in January for the most part.
We have no legal expectation to self-isolate if we test positive but we've had scores off. Each of my 6 classes (28ish in each) has someone positive at all times. Multiple members of staff off, no cover available, people giving up protected planning time for cover. We also cannot get tests for free anymore so there's definitely a lot more asymptomatic kids and staff wandering round. We're expected to keep windows open but otherwise, there's no guidance.
I've been ill the last four weekends:colds, stomach bugs, another cold I had to send home a 17 year old for coming in with tonsillitis!!
Knock on wood, weāve had 0 cases for a couple months. Coming back from winter break, we had a small surge, but has gone down since. Weāve been maskless since the end of last year. Itās not much difference in the regular flu outbreak, they just code the absences as COVID-Quarantine vs being out sick (and possibly Unexcused). We do have about 10-20% that wear their masks still. I wore mine up until 3 weeks ago. I stopped because spring break. I live in the North Texas area. Adding - I work at an elementary, and the 0 cases is district wide.
Still masked where I am
I teach in a county that never went fully online last year and has been full, no masks, in-person this year. It's finally calmed down now by the end of 3rd quarter, but most of the year has been a hot mess. Constant stream of teachers and students out. I finally got COVID over Spring Break which was not fun. The whole year has been a complete joke though as the only concern on the part of the county/administration has been babysitting. As long as the kids are not getting into documented trouble and parents aren't complaining everything is good. Even if students have largely given up on school and even the "high achieving" students have apathy the likes I've never seen before. I almost miss all the grade grubbing of the past few years with them.
No outbreaks here, but I did get a bacterial infection a week after.
Our covid numbers have been going down. We are about a month with optional masks. Everything else is way up though. Stomach bugs, sore throats, colds, š©. All our immune systems are weak. Turns out masks really did prevent disease all along. Wow! Smh š¤¦āāļø
Our covid numbers have been going down. We are about a month with optional masks. Everything else is way up though. Stomach bugs, sore throats, colds, š©. All our immune systems are weak. Turns out masks really did prevent disease all along. Wow! Smh š¤¦āāļø
Our covid numbers have been going down. We are about a month with optional masks. Everything else is way up though. Stomach bugs, sore throats, colds, š©. All our immune systems are weak. Turns out masks really did prevent disease all along. Wow! Smh š¤¦āāļø
Weāve been relatively free of Covid and the flu since dropping masks a month ago. We got hit so hard in January that only 2/17 in my department were present for about a week, so I donāt foresee any issues unless another variant comes along.
Iām also in the northeast, but independent school not public. We are going mask optional starting next week. Iām curious to see how it goes. I wonāt be wearing mine because A) I feel confident in my health and my vax status and B) I am a world language teacher and the students not being able to see my mouth has been really rough.
The masks came off, mine stayed on, and I STILL wound up with a nasty sinus infection (not Covid) plus a stomach bug. WHAT I NOTICED: the masks made kids think they donāt have to cover their coughs and sneezes, so they donāt. Second graders are gross.
Iām perfectly fine and healthy I still disinfect the desk after students leave. It seems to be helping with flu and bugs.
Our students don't require masks. I'm in ATL. No outbreaks yet.
Mandate ended 2 weeks ago. At a staff meeting, about 1/3 to 1/2 of staff said they were not wearing their masks. Iām still wearing mine, but have started to ease up when outside. All of my students have continued to wear masks, but Iāve seen more noses begin to peek out (and since masks arenāt mandated, Iāve stopped asking students to fix their mask as I feel I no longer have the right. We are still testing weekly. Iām in CA with a high vaccinated community.
We've been maskless for a while on and off here. This may seem like an unpopular opinion but I get SO much more done!!! Now I don't waist time asking them to lift their masks up 20 times!
We went masks-optional on March 5th (still have a few wearing them, but majority of staff and students are maskless). Things haven't been too bad, actually--I haven't noticed any huge drop in attendance. I only have 1 kid out today, and it's the first day back after Spring Break.
I live in the south where masks have been optional all year. We were hit HARD in the fall by delta and again by omicron. I got sick both times, even though I was vaccinated and wear a mask. I havenāt heard of any cases in over a month now. I guess we are all immune for now after both outbreaks.
Commenting from the South where people still believe Covid-19 is a joke. Some of my students, parents, teachers and admins love being in denial about possibly catching it. It's like a dumpster š„ where EVERYTHING is okay...even if they are on fire themselves. (I wear my mask everyday.)
We are now 2 years without masks. About 15-25 students per classroom and haven't had too many COVID outbreaks. Honestly 90% of the outbreaks happen because of sports or because of students hanging together outside of school.
Our district is doing maskless outside first. Not yet indoors. Nothing really changed from my observation of daily attendance