There’s ‘a buzz in the classroom’ today in Wake schools. Masks are no longer required.
The masks came off Monday for many Wake County students and teachers now that they’re no longer required to be worn in North Carolina’s largest school system.
Monday marked the first time since the coronavirus pandemic started two years ago that face masks have been optional in Wake County schools. The school system is telling families and school employees that masks are still recommended, but many people are leaving them off now that the coverings are no longer required.
“It was really precious seeing all their faces coming in this morning, and the students were really excited,” Holly Berk, a kindergarten teacher at Scotts Ridge Elementary School in Apex, said in an interview Monday.
“My neighboring teacher and I were both talking about there’s a kind of a buzz in the classroom and just in the hallway this morning of students who were excited to have a choice on whether they wanted to wear a mask or not.”
Berk left her face mask off after seeing that 13 of her 17 students were unmasked. She still plans to wear a mask when working in small groups with children who are still wearing face coverings.
New guidelines released by the state Department of Health and Human Services that went into effect Monday no longer recommend face coverings in schools. Previously, DHHS had recommended requiring masks in schools.
Few schools still require masks
At least 105 of the state’s 115 school districts have either dropped mask mandates or set dates when they’ll no longer mandate them. Most have already made them optional.
Wake and Chatham County schools stopped mandating masks as of Monday. Wake, which has 159,000 students and 20,000 employees, had opted to phase in the end of the mask mandate over the past week, starting first with athletics and extracurricular activities
The Orange County school system plans to stop requiring masks this week. Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools ended its outdoor mask mandate on Monday but still plans to require them indoors until April 4.
Durham Public Schools is one of the few school systems that haven’t said when masks will no longer be required.
Legislation that would let families opt out of school mask mandates was vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper. State lawmakers say they plan to override the veto but no vote has taken place yet.
Respecting masking decisions
A concern some Wake school board members had raised about ending the mask mandate was whether students would be bullied if they still wore them. Other board members said they want to make sure schools don’t pressure students to continue wearing masks.
During the transition period, teachers talked with students about showing respect and kindness to their classmates about masking.
“This is a very simple message that they understand that it is about everyone having a choice and respecting one another’s choice, whatever that may be,” Allen Ellzey, Scotts Ridge’s interim principal, said in an interview Monday.
Berk, a semi-finalist for Wake County Teacher of the Year, repeated that message on Monday.
“There will be people at school with different opinions about masks,” Berk said as she read aloud the morning message. “We will be kind and respectful to all.”
Berk said that it did feel “odd” at first not seeing masks on in the classroom Monday after they had been required for so long.
“It was this moment of ‘is this ok?’” Berk said in an interview. “And then once we realized it was, it was just a little bit of relief. Seeing their excitement made me excited too.”
Masking now a family choice
Parental reaction was mixed about no longer requiring masks
Melissa Carolla left the decision for her two sons up to them. She said the 6th-grader at Apex Middle wanted to see what his classmates would do while her first-grader at Scotts Ridge Elementary planned to leave his mask off.
“It’s whatever the family is comfortable with,” Carolla said in interview. “We were comfortable with our kids making the decision for themselves while others are going to be a little bit more conservative about it, and that’s fine.”
Ryan Kedrowski’s two children at Scotts Ridge Elementary are still masking until they become fully vaccinated for COVID-19.
“Seeing the numbers, they’re coming down but they’re not all the way down yet,” Kedrowski said in an interview. “It’s wise to just be a little bit prudent for own family’s sake.”
Kaitlin Baynes said she wished Wake had kept the mask mandate on through the rest of the school year. For now, she says her three children will stay masked at Scotts Ridge.
“We’re just sort of taking it one week at a time, but right now we still feel like there’s a big benefit of wearing masks,” Baynes said in an interview. “Our family hasn’t had COVID and we’d like to keep it that way.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2022 at 11:26 AM with the headline "There’s ‘a buzz in the classroom’ today in Wake schools. Masks are no longer required.."
