No one wants to experience getting COVID-19 from school due to someone not wearing their mask. Anyone who wears their mask incorrectly should not be coming into the building. If we can get penalized with suspension for being tardy to school, then there should be a consequence for not wearing masks as well. 

According to WebMD, the most common way of transmitting the virus is through transference, “when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks, droplets or tiny particles called aerosols carry the virus into the air from their nose or mouth.”

The KPS district has had a total of 1,260 COVID cases and the virus is still spreading. Not wearing your mask in school at all times will only make the number larger. 

Wearing your mask under your nose isn’t wearing your mask correctly. In order for the mask to be correctly worn, MedlinePlus says that it must be “breathable fabric that completely covers your mouth and fits snuggly against the sides of your face.” The main reason for having a mask on your face, covering your nose, is to stop your or others’ respiratory droplets from reaching another person.

Wearing the mask under your nose doesn’t count, but seems to be a common practice in the hallways of Loy Norrix.  Those students should have consequences if they continue to wear their masks incorrectly, causing other students to feel uncomfortable.

“Wearing your mask incorrectly or not wearing it at all not only puts yourself at risk, but others at risk as well,” said junior Tierra Carson. 

The spread of the COVID-19 virus has decreased significantly within Michigan, but this isn’t the time to stop wearing a mask and watch the numbers rise again: it is the time to keep wearing a mask and watch the numbers drop from the thousands to the hundreds.

Currently, if you are not wearing your mask the correct way, the consequence is that your teacher will send you out of the classroom to one of the referral rooms.

According to KPS’s website on Mask Requirements when a student refuses to wear their mask incorrectly on a consistent basis, consequences for students may include moving the student to an alternate learning setting in the school to: 

• Work independently by getting assignments from Google Classroom
• Watch pre-recorded lessons or assess other online instructional content
• Any other strategies deemed fit by disciplinary procedures

We have been in classrooms long enough to know the correct way of wearing our masks, and students must wear their masks correctly in order to stay in class and receive an education without endangering their classmates.

Should we be wearing a mask day in and day out during school hours? Absolutely, the goal of coming to school is to get our education and get closer to graduation, but being sent out of class every day due to not wearing masks correctly should be a consequence if you are not wearing your masks correctly. 

Students who refuse to wear their masks should receive a simple warning and then that should lead to more harsh consequences. It’s not fair for the majority of students to wear masks the right way for students wearing their masks incorrectly to get away with doing so.

The third trimester, the last trimester of the 2021-2022 school year, will be coming to an end, and KPS will be conducting a board meeting on March 17 that will be re-evaluating the mask mandates, and with the HEPA filters being added in the cafeteria, Loy Norrix is making strides to control COVID-19 one step at a time. 

I feel as though our school is going to go back to the beginning of the year: masks not over our noses as temperatures increase in classrooms towards the end of the school year.  With some classroom temperature in the 90s, ensuring that students are wearing a mask properly may become a more difficult task for staff to enforce.

 “Hey, pull your mask up!” should only have to be said once, and if the student does or doesn’t cooperate, then there should be a stronger consequence.