DCPS: Masks Optional the rest of the year

[Anonymous]

My 6th grader got braces in November and plans to stay masked.

[Anonymous]

Of 20 kids in my child's K class this morning at a JKLM, only 2-3 were masked walking into the classroom. I was pleasantly surprised.

[Anonymous]

Ward 6: 60% masked/ 40% unmasked kids; more like 40/60 at the PK level. Every teacher/staff member I saw was masked, but those were mostly teachers greeting everyone in the morning, so may not be representative of classroom teachers.

My DD's teacher sent a really good email this morning about how she is going to spend the morning talking about life after masks to try to decrease everyone's anxiety around the issue. She did say she will enforce mask wearing for kids whose parents reach out and ask for that.

We reached out proactively to DS' PK4 teacher, since 40% of the class is still vaccine ineligible (DS is vaxxed) to see if she wanted masks, because we would have respected that request. She said no, entirely up to parents and she was fine with any choice.

My kids both indicated they wanted to go unmasked and I am pleased with how the school seems to be handling it. (The principal also sent a great email last night about talking to kids about respecting all choices and how she would work to make sure the school did the same.)

[Anonymous]

Ward 6: I didn’t see any unmasked kids at drop off. We have a pretty educated parent population so I’m not surprised.

[Anonymous]

At our charter, everyone is masked outside at drop off, including parents, staff, even though masks are now optional outside. They aren’t lifting masks inside for the foreseeable future. I think much of the staff will continue to wear when optional - and at least the PreK families seem very committed to masks indoors, so even if optional, I think most kids will choose to be masked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ward 6: I didn’t see any unmasked kids at drop off. We have a pretty educated parent population so I’m not surprised.

HaHa you're hilarious...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of 20 kids in my child's K class this morning at a JKLM, only 2-3 were masked walking into the classroom. I was pleasantly surprised.

Same! So excited. My kid’s teachers were also unmasked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ward 6: I didn’t see any unmasked kids at drop off. We have a pretty educated parent population so I’m not surprised.

HaHa you're hilarious...

Yes, that's hilarious. My husband and I both have PhDs and are *thrilled* to unmask our kids. There isn't a single good study that supports masking kids in schools, and anyone who can critically evaluate data and risk understands that kids are low risk. I understand that someone who lives with highly vulnerable family members might want to keep up even the most marginally protective measures, but for the average family it just doesn't make rational sense.

Sadly, the PP has a point though, but only because in this country, education tends to track with political affiliation, and masks are so highly politicized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ward 6: I didn’t see any unmasked kids at drop off. We have a pretty educated parent population so I’m not surprised.

Dying laughing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher report. Nearly all staff in masks today and I would say 80-85% of kids masked. This is upper NW

Wow. That is sad. I don't think that's the situation at our Upper NW school, at least not for the kids. Didn't see enough teachers this morning, but some were still masking outside.

I would expect teachers to stay masked longer than the kids. For kids, I bet usage will fall a lot over a week or two.

Teacher in NOVA. We are on week 4 of no masks and I would say 60% of staff is now unmasked. Probably 75% masked the first week. Also guess that 50% of kids chose to unmask. Most of my students that still wear masks are the ones that have worn them below their noses since the beginning of the year.

[Anonymous]

I really wish people would shut up about this. If you want your child to wear one they can, if you don't, the policy now says they don't have to. Is this discussion going to go on forever recycling the same tired stuff over and over? Or can we just stop?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really wish people would shut up about this. If you want your child to wear one they can, if you don't, the policy now says they don't have to. Is this discussion going to go on forever recycling the same tired stuff over and over? Or can we just stop?

You do know that you can just stop reading this thread, right?

I think it's unreasonable to expect people to stop discussing something that is right now a live issue at everybody's school. Yes, the policy is settled for now, but that doesn't mean there aren't going to be social tensions, and people also have to process the impacts masks had on their kids lives in the past two years. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, and it's natural for people to come here and talk about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really wish people would shut up about this. If you want your child to wear one they can, if you don't, the policy now says they don't have to. Is this discussion going to go on forever recycling the same tired stuff over and over? Or can we just stop?

The pro-plague crowd just can’t help themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really wish people would shut up about this. If you want your child to wear one they can, if you don't, the policy now says they don't have to. Is this discussion going to go on forever recycling the same tired stuff over and over? Or can we just stop?

Pretty easy to not click a link.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really wish people would shut up about this. If you want your child to wear one they can, if you don't, the policy now says they don't have to. Is this discussion going to go on forever recycling the same tired stuff over and over? Or can we just stop?

I am bored of the discussion of the virtues of masking or unmasking, but am finding the reports from various areas of what actually happened this morning quite interesting. That has not been discussed to death, since it just happened.