My mom is a DCPS teacher choosing to unmask but all but 3 of her 120 students were masked. My own kids’ school in arlington went mask optional back in January. Started with 6 of 20 in my daughters class unmasked and now at just 2 kids masking. Peer pressure and conformity is a real thing and older kids more susceptible. My DH is also a teacher that went optimal a few weeks ago and the snide comments in high school are tough. His school has more teachers than students unmasking.

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. The pressure to unmask is sort of disgusting. I am fine with DCPS making it an option but if we as a family have decided to continue to mask, that should be our choice. It is not hurting anyone else. If anything it could be helping control spread. But it is certainly not hurting anyone, so why the pressure to remove it?

LOL it's not. But you're right, it isn't hurting anyone and should be a personal choice.

Anonymous wrote:At Lafayette there were maybe 2-3 masked kids per room, everyone else had them off.

Wow, I definitely think you will notice a difference between predominantly white schools, and predominately black schools. My school is 90+% black, everyone wore a mask.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. The pressure to unmask is sort of disgusting. I am fine with DCPS making it an option but if we as a family have decided to continue to mask, that should be our choice. It is not hurting anyone else. If anything it could be helping control spread. But it is certainly not hurting anyone, so why the pressure to remove it?

I think there is more pressure to stay masked in Dc. I teach in a different school division and we have had the option to mask or not for a month. It’s really not a big deal. Some kids do and some do not. No one cares.

Definitely. It's ludicrous to claim there is any widespread pressure to unmask in DC.

At Lafayette there were maybe 2-3 masked kids per room, everyone else had them off.

Elementary teacher here. Today looked no different than yesterday, every staff member I saw and student was masked. All that changed for me was when a student's mask was down or under the nose, I didn't correct them or tell them to pull it up.

I am going to keep wearing a mask. I caught COVID at work during Christmas break and had to cancel my trip to Spain. I don't want to take the risk of catching it again. Staying masked until spring break...at least!

It's interesting that MS/HS students are mostly staying masked, while ES students are more likely to ditch theirs. My guess is that it has something to do with older kids being more aware of the politics around masking.

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. The pressure to unmask is sort of disgusting. I am fine with DCPS making it an option but if we as a family have decided to continue to mask, that should be our choice. It is not hurting anyone else. If anything it could be helping control spread. But it is certainly not hurting anyone, so why the pressure to remove it?

I think there is more pressure to stay masked in Dc. I teach in a different school division and we have had the option to mask or not for a month. It’s really not a big deal. Some kids do and some do not. No one cares.

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. The pressure to unmask is sort of disgusting. I am fine with DCPS making it an option but if we as a family have decided to continue to mask, that should be our choice. It is not hurting anyone else. If anything it could be helping control spread. But it is certainly not hurting anyone, so why the pressure to remove it?

I don’t feel any pressure to unmask. If anything, I feel social pressure to keep masking. We were on the fence so decided to mask because we knew it’s what most of the families in our class would do and our kid expressed no preference (for now, she said that it’s harder to mask when it’s warmer).

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. The pressure to unmask is sort of disgusting. I am fine with DCPS making it an option but if we as a family have decided to continue to mask, that should be our choice. It is not hurting anyone else. If anything it could be helping control spread. But it is certainly not hurting anyone, so why the pressure to remove it?

Your child has been receiving pressure to unmask?

Interesting. The pressure to unmask is sort of disgusting. I am fine with DCPS making it an option but if we as a family have decided to continue to mask, that should be our choice. It is not hurting anyone else. If anything it could be helping control spread. But it is certainly not hurting anyone, so why the pressure to remove it?

1st grader said all but a few unmasked, 5th grader said only 5 unmasked. Upper NW W3 elementary.

My Deal kid reported almost everyone still masked. My Wilson kid reported less masking earlier in the day and more by the end (not sure why).

Anonymous wrote:Curious what kids at different schools chose. At my HS every single kid I taught was masked today with a small number of noses poking out that used to be covered . No student was completely unmasked.

Multiple students commented they just don’t understand why adults are making a big deal about this and don’t understand why the decision was made now with cases going back up in Europe.

Did any school have a big change in masking % today?

Same here, 24/25 students in my classes stayed masked.

Anonymous wrote:My 6th grader at deal said almost all kids were masked. All her teachers but one were masked. She (6th grader) also remained masked "I don't even notice it mom"

My deal students reported the same and chose to mask (that was their thought going into school today before seeing peers.)