Recently, Corry Middle-High School has announced that masks will not be required as long as COVID cases are under the number of 18. This has definitely been a goal that the community of Corry, PA has been working on for quite some time. Well now, Tuesday February 15, 2022, was the first day since we’ve been back that masks have not been required. Is this truly the safest option that is possible for students and staff, though? 

The phrase staying safe in the times of COVID has been used frequently in our lives, but it doesn’t really seem like people take that seriously. Every day students were told to pull their mask up, to use hand sanitizer, and to wipe down their desk every day after every period. Slowly we stopped doing these things one by one forgetting that there is a deadly virus still taking people’s lives. It’s understandable that this is tiring to repeat every day, but that doesn’t give us the excuse to just give up on our own and others’ safety. If we want to live a normal life again, then you’re going to either have to get vaccinated or tested every week. 

Vaccination refusal is a topic that has always been controversial, but it’s been more popular than ever due to COVID. Instead of getting the vaccine to keep themselves and others safe, people seem to let their political views get in the way of health for our city. Corry schools have even had to witness losing students from COVID. If this isn’t an obvious reason to why the problem of the mask mandate should be fixed then I don’t know what is. 

Ways that we could truly help lift mask mandates in Corry schools in our community would be to have all students and staff either vaccinated or tested every week. If the students and staff  refuse to get vaccinated and tested, then why are we giving them the luxury of not having to wear a mask? This is a serious real world issue and if you don’t want to cooperate with it then it becomes a personal problem. So you’re going suffer the consequences. Why are we allowing ourselves to have an unsafe community? It’s honestly unfair to the people who did get vaccinated almost as if we were moving backwards. It seems as if the school board didn’t look for solutions to a safe education environment but was just sick of the complaining from parents and just gave them what they wanted. 

If you don’t want to wear a mask so badly then get vaccinated or tested every week. One’s completely free made for children and adults, and one is repetitive and painful. That’s the price you should pay, though, if you don’t want to have to wear a mask. Oddly enough, the people who constantly wore masks around their chin were the most happy mandates were lifted. It’s interesting that the ones who didn’t even wear it correctly were the most excited. Some of these people were even adults, but I’ve been wearing masks correctly for nearly two years and this is genuinely something I’m concerned about. Masks aren’t the problem, people are. If Corry Middle High School wants to lift the mask mandates then they should think about the effects it will have. If you’re able to get vaccinated, I highly suggest it for the safety of yourself and other people. If not, you might not be so lucky in the future.