On Tuesday, Feb. 22, wearing a mask on campus will be optional, Principal Mrs. Julie Barthel announced via an all-school email. Citing declining Covid-19 numbers, Barthel signaled an end to the all-school mask mandate in place since Sept. 1. 

School President Dr. Robert Bridges provide assurances that the change had been seriously thought out. He said, “For the last couple of weeks we’ve been talking about it. As soon as we saw those numbers drastically drop, we saw a lot of states and schools starting to drop the mask requirements. We knew we wanted to take a hard look, at it so we talked to our medical experts and we just feel it’s time.”

Senior Hudson Miller welcomed the change. He said, “It’s nice for the students to have their own freedom to wear what they think is safe and what’s not safe. I like how they’re leaving it up to the students. People who feel comfortable without one and feel safe will go back to no mask and people who still don’t feel quite comfortable can still wear their mask, so I think it’s a good balance of both.”

However, junior Melissa Sheppard says she thinks it is still a bit too soon. She said, “I don’t think I quite agree with the change. Without knowing the vaccination or case numbers, I don’t feel comfortable with optional masking yet.”

Bridges said, “I just think it’s the better way to go. Facial expressions are such an important part of open communication.”