As the Coronavirus pandemic continues its iron grip over the United States and the world as a whole, A strange culture war is brewing in schools across the nation. There is a concentrated effort by many in powerful positions to abolish mask mandates in schools. I am going to explain my belief of why this is a very bad idea.

Since the start of the 2021-22 school year here at MHS we have seen dozens of students and staff members test positive for Coronavirus. While this is unfortunate, it could be much worse. As of September 30th the percentage positivity rate of Covid tests have been about .2% across all of Chesterfield county schools. That is extraordinarily low. We have not achieved this successful goal by crossing our fingers and hoping for the best. We have achieved it by Mandatory masking and contact tracing. A repeal of those policies at this point would be extremely dangerous. The process we have in place is working.

While it is not highly comfortable to do and can cause difficulties even, The CDC reports that districts with mask mandates had lower case rates than districts without.  School districts across the nation that do not require masks have higher case rates, but even in the face of commonsense, many politicians and their constituents alike have attacked the validity of mask policies.  Let us be clear however: this is not a political issue, this is a public health issue. It is pivotal that we treat it as such.

While I understand the argument for individual choice, history has demonstrated that sometimes we have to do things for the greater good. War efforts in the past required civilian rationing and recycling. Certain policies like drinking age restrictions and seatbelt mandates are put in place to keep everyone safe.We should think of masking as no different than these noble sacrifices when overall public safety is concerned. If a drunk driver is on a highway and hits someone else, then it no longer just affects the drunk driver; if an infected person infects another person it now affects more than the initial person. 

Defeating Coronavirus will require us to work together as a group. Every single person in the MHS community will have to carry some weight. Mask wearing is such a small and temporary price to pay to get our community moving again. However, the alternative can be dangerous and destructive so at this point making masks optional is an absolutely abhorrent idea.