Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm burning all my masks today. LET'S GO!! My middle schoolers don't want to take them off for cosmetic reasons (they also want to see what their friends will do), but I'm so happy about this.

Cosmetic reasons?

I believe that, many kids this age are super conscious of their looks and don’t mind hiding behind a mask.

My 6th grader said that the teachers polled the students. Out of a group of 36 (two classes that they know about), there are 5 students and 1 teacher that would opt out of wearing masks. The rest don't find it onerous, and DD said that the kids are happy to hide behind their masks for as long as they can.

That sounds emotionally healthy. Schools really doing a number on our kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm burning all my masks today. LET'S GO!! My middle schoolers don't want to take them off for cosmetic reasons (they also want to see what their friends will do), but I'm so happy about this.

Cosmetic reasons?

I believe that, many kids this age are super conscious of their looks and don’t mind hiding behind a mask.

My 6th grader said that the teachers polled the students. Out of a group of 36 (two classes that they know about), there are 5 students and 1 teacher that would opt out of wearing masks. The rest don't find it onerous, and DD said that the kids are happy to hide behind their masks for as long as they can.

Or they are too scared to raise their hand.

Potentially. My DS is in 4th and has come home reporting when so and so got their second vaccination shot. His class seems to be pretty openly discussing it, complete with kids whining about why they had to go to the Government Center when other kids only had to go to the Giant. No one has asked the kids opinions about masks at school so who knows what they are thinking. I do know that his entire basketball team is wearing masks during games. They play at a ES gym and the masks are not required but a note was sent home asking parents to have the kids wear mask because of COVID. At Scout meetings I have to remind a few kids to pull theirs up over their nose and they do and it stays up.

I doubt any of them like wearing masks but they don't seem to be put out to be wearing them. I'll be interested to hear what happens at his school on Monday, I suspect most of the kids will be wearing masks and that it will be a while before things change.

Asking could be intimidation.

The rules changed and they can be free of masks if they like.

You don’t need to ask them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm burning all my masks today. LET'S GO!! My middle schoolers don't want to take them off for cosmetic reasons (they also want to see what their friends will do), but I'm so happy about this.

Cosmetic reasons?

I believe that, many kids this age are super conscious of their looks and don’t mind hiding behind a mask.

My 6th grader said that the teachers polled the students. Out of a group of 36 (two classes that they know about), there are 5 students and 1 teacher that would opt out of wearing masks. The rest don't find it onerous, and DD said that the kids are happy to hide behind their masks for as long as they can.

Or they are too scared to raise their hand.

+1 ridiculous that a teacher wasted time polling kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm burning all my masks today. LET'S GO!! My middle schoolers don't want to take them off for cosmetic reasons (they also want to see what their friends will do), but I'm so happy about this.

Cosmetic reasons?

I believe that, many kids this age are super conscious of their looks and don’t mind hiding behind a mask.

My 6th grader said that the teachers polled the students. Out of a group of 36 (two classes that they know about), there are 5 students and 1 teacher that would opt out of wearing masks. The rest don't find it onerous, and DD said that the kids are happy to hide behind their masks for as long as they can.

Or they are too scared to raise their hand.

Some how my youngest daughter has escaped acne.

The others never had a bad case (except for one and that was drastically reduced with an adjustment in diet)

Anyway, kids have been mask free after school and nearly everywhere else for quite a long time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm burning all my masks today. LET'S GO!! My middle schoolers don't want to take them off for cosmetic reasons (they also want to see what their friends will do), but I'm so happy about this.

Cosmetic reasons?

I believe that, many kids this age are super conscious of their looks and don’t mind hiding behind a mask.

My 6th grader said that the teachers polled the students. Out of a group of 36 (two classes that they know about), there are 5 students and 1 teacher that would opt out of wearing masks. The rest don't find it onerous, and DD said that the kids are happy to hide behind their masks for as long as they can.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm burning all my masks today. LET'S GO!! My middle schoolers don't want to take them off for cosmetic reasons (they also want to see what their friends will do), but I'm so happy about this.

Cosmetic reasons?

I believe that, many kids this age are super conscious of their looks and don’t mind hiding behind a mask.

Totally believe this. These kids have not shown their faces in two years. It's going to be a huge deal, and imagine this with our tweens where (for some) masks have hidden their braces or their acne!? I feel them.

Add that to seeing some of their friends faces only behind IG/TikTok/Snapchat/whatever filters, and yikes! Imagine thinking everyone is filter gorgeous...

You're over thinking this. The MS and HS kids have had their masks pulled down for awhile (and pull them up only when teachers call them out on it) and hey don't even wear masks for sports.

There's no great "reveal" and it's not this huge ordeal you're prohecting. Teens have been showing their face for awhile now It's NBD.

This is not true in my classes or at my school. Yes, they may go beneath the nose sometimes, but all of my students are masked. Same is true in the hallways. It will be quite strange to see them all unmasked if they choose to take them off.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm burning all my masks today. LET'S GO!! My middle schoolers don't want to take them off for cosmetic reasons (they also want to see what their friends will do), but I'm so happy about this.

Cosmetic reasons?

I believe that, many kids this age are super conscious of their looks and don’t mind hiding behind a mask.

Totally believe this. These kids have not shown their faces in two years. It's going to be a huge deal, and imagine this with our tweens where (for some) masks have hidden their braces or their acne!? I feel them.

Add that to seeing some of their friends faces only behind IG/TikTok/Snapchat/whatever filters, and yikes! Imagine thinking everyone is filter gorgeous...

You're over thinking this. The MS and HS kids have had their masks pulled down for awhile (and pull them up only when teachers call them out on it) and hey don't even wear masks for sports.

There's no great "reveal" and it's not this huge ordeal you're prohecting. Teens have been showing their face for awhile now It's NBD.

FCPS isn't even acknowledging March 1.

The various fcps newsletters, weekly email from school, SB newsletter, etc has said NOTHING about March 1. There are long wordy paragraphs about XYZ, but nothing about masks post Mar 1.

They're in denial of the inevitable.

Fairfax case numbers stalled at 11 per 100k people per day. We could be stuck at this for awhile. This is why new metrics are necessary. This is what endemic looks like.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm burning all my masks today. LET'S GO!! My middle schoolers don't want to take them off for cosmetic reasons (they also want to see what their friends will do), but I'm so happy about this.

Cosmetic reasons?

I believe that, many kids this age are super conscious of their looks and don’t mind hiding behind a mask.

Totally believe this. These kids have not shown their faces in two years. It's going to be a huge deal, and imagine this with our tweens where (for some) masks have hidden their braces or their acne!? I feel them.

Add that to seeing some of their friends faces only behind IG/TikTok/Snapchat/whatever filters, and yikes! Imagine thinking everyone is filter gorgeous...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Email from APS indicated they wanted some kind of record of those opting out to inform "contact tracing".

I am in APS and it seems ridiculous. I am supportive of masking remaining, but it's clear that the new law makes it optional. I don't know a single teacher who wants to task of "checking the mask-apt out list" before asking a student to pull up their mask. So now, if a kid takes it off at lunch, no teacher is going to ask them to put it back on. So this "opt out for contact tracing" thing is complete nonsense.

Agreed, I don't want my child's teacher wasting time checking lists and monitoring mask compliance.

I don't think that is what APS teachers will be doing. The opt out list is only for students who are in close contact if someone has COVID. Teachers will not be checking the lists in their classes to see who or who is not complying.

So practically that means:

- a kid is not officially on the opt-out list, sits between 3 & 6 feet from a positive Covid case
- kid takes off mask anyway, no one checks/cares/whatever
- contact tracing happens
- said kid doesn't count as a close contact

So the incentive to officially be on the opt-out list is...?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm burning all my masks today. LET'S GO!! My middle schoolers don't want to take them off for cosmetic reasons (they also want to see what their friends will do), but I'm so happy about this.

Cosmetic reasons?

I believe that, many kids this age are super conscious of their looks and don’t mind hiding behind a mask.

Totally believe this. These kids have not shown their faces in two years. It's going to be a huge deal, and imagine this with our tweens where (for some) masks have hidden their braces or their acne!? I feel them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Email from APS indicated they wanted some kind of record of those opting out to inform "contact tracing".

I am in APS and it seems ridiculous. I am supportive of masking remaining, but it's clear that the new law makes it optional. I don't know a single teacher who wants to task of "checking the mask-apt out list" before asking a student to pull up their mask. So now, if a kid takes it off at lunch, no teacher is going to ask them to put it back on. So this "opt out for contact tracing" thing is complete nonsense.

Agreed, I don't want my child's teacher wasting time checking lists and monitoring mask compliance.

I don't think that is what APS teachers will be doing. The opt out list is only for students who are in close contact if someone has COVID. Teachers will not be checking the lists in their classes to see who or who is not complying.