California students and school staff had mixed emotions about the end of the state’s school mask mandate Monday. In the Bay Area many students and school staff opted to continue to wear masks, while face coverings were scarce in schools in the Central Valley and Northern California foothills.
At Concord High School in Contra Costa County, about 70% of students wore masks Monday, at least some of the time, said principal Rianne Pfaltzgraff. Most of the staff also chose to keep their mask on, but some were still elated that masks were no longer required.
In at least one class, teachers held a “mask reveal” where students flung off their masks and looked at each other’s faces for the first time. Junior Kaila Murillo was amazed at how different her friends looked than she expected. The eyes and ears offer only a glimpse of a person – so much is expressed in the nose and mouth and smile, she said.
Even if they kept everyone safe, masks were a major inconvenience, Murillo said. They fogged up your glasses, they were stifling if you had allergies, they made your skin break out, and they were intensely uncomfortable during those hot Concord afternoons, she said.
“I threw all my masks out this morning,” she said. “It felt great. It felt like summer’s almost here. It feels like you can finally breathe.”
Karen Jauregui, a junior, said she was ecstatic to breathe freely and see her friends’ faces, some for the first time. But she wore her mask during first period out of respect for her teacher, who has an underlying health condition.
“At first it was a little scary to not wear a mask, but almost everyone I know has had Covid and gotten better, and I’m fully vaxxed,” she said. “So it feels low risk.”
California’s mask mandate went into effect in the summer of 2021, as most school campuses prepared to reopen after being closed for more than a year because of Covid-19 concerns.
The end of the state mask mandate Monday was a turning point for school districts, many of which have been besieged by anti-mask protesters at school board meetings and on campuses. Now school districts and county health offices have the authority to decide whether to continue to require masks on campuses. Many districts eagerly retired the mandate.
At Nevada Joint Union High School District, everyone’s step got lighter Monday, Superintendent Brett McFadden said. The district defied the state mandate and made masks optional for students on Feb. 22, after anti-mask protests began erupting at campuses. But with the state removing the mask mandate for all students and teachers, Monday was the first day that the staff could come to class without a face covering. About 75% of students and staff did not wear masks, he said.
“Now that we are in an optional mode, we aren’t having to enforce it – which takes time and effort,” he said. “Now we can concentrate more on interacting with kids and getting back to what we are good at – providing instructional leadership to kids.”
California’s two largest school systems have yet to lift their mask mandates. San Diego Unified will end the requirement April 4, following the district’s spring break, while Los Angeles Unified is still negotiating with its teachers union about lifting the mandate. LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said he favors following the state’s decision to strongly recommend masks be worn in schools but not to mandate them.
South San Francisco Unified School District’s board voted last week to keep its indoor masking mandate until at least April 18, although it did remove the requirement that students wear a mask outdoors. District officials will consider Covid-19 case rates and other public health data before deciding whether to recommend masks instead of requiring them.
Some districts are waiting until after spring break to lift indoor mask mandates. Oakland Unified, Sacramento City Unified and Davis Joint Unified plan to lift their mandates in mid-April. District leaders have expressed concern that there could be a post-spring-break surge similar to the increase in cases after the winter holiday break.
West Contra Costa Unified officials announced Saturday – after conferring with its unions – that masking would be “strongly recommended but no longer required,” at high schools, middle schools and district offices. The district will continue requiring masks at elementary schools through April 15, when students return from spring break.
District officials wanted to “move cautiously,” not knowing the vaccination rates of elementary students, said district spokesman Ryan Phillips. The district knows that 87% of students ages 12 and older are vaccinated.
San Francisco Unified adopted a similar plan, allowing masks to be optional at high school and middle schools, but requiring them for elementary schools through April 2, after spring break.
Oakland parent Sarah Jackel said she had a hard time explaining to her kids why one had to wear a mask to school Monday and the other didn’t. Her 5-year-old son attends a private preschool, which lifted its indoor mask mandate, and her 7-year-old daughter attends a school in Oakland Unified, which is keeping its mask mandate through April 15 over concerns of a surge after spring break. Officials said the district will “assess the continued need for the indoor mask mandate following spring break, after consulting with our labor partners and other stakeholders.”
Jackel said she favored the mask mandate earlier in the school year but believes it is time to lift it now. She wants the district to follow public health guidance that allows the removal of masks. “I am disappointed they are delaying that decision to consult with labor when our kids so desperately need a return to normalcy,” she said.
