Should LSHS Mandate Masks/Vaccines?

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Kevin McGhee

Two years ago Covid-19 made a big impact on everyone’s life and till this day it still continues to affect everyone, especially students. Last school year, the students were given the choice to either return to school in-person or go to school virtually, but, if you go back to school in-person, you were required to wear a mask because Covid was still new. 

It’s been a year since last school year and Covid is still around, but rules have been changed and lifted. Scientists have released the Covid-19 Vaccine to the public on December 11, 2020, and on May 10, 2021. Since then, 59.1%of the United States population has been vaccinated. 

This school year, students were still given the option to go to school in-person or do virtual but the majority of students came back in-person, and they were given the choice to wear a mask if they wanted to.

There has been news about the government making it a requirement to have the vaccine in order to go to school. California has become the first state to announce that it will add this vaccine to it’s list of required for all school children. 

Lake Shore senior, Antonio Huston, said “Schools shouldn’t make it mandatory for students to take the vaccine in order to go to school because Covid should die down by next year since most of the population is taking the vaccine.” 

Mallici Darwin also added, “Students shouldn’t have to be forced to take the vaccine because all students have an opinion and some students still may not feel comfortable taking the vaccine, because like me I do not trust the vaccine.”

There also has been talk about schools making students mask if the numbers of Covid patients continues to increase. 

Jalen Awosika believes that, “everyone should have to wear a mask in school if students in that same school start to catch Covid.” 

While Huston stated, “there is no point to be forced to wear a mask in school because if almost everyone in a school has the vaccine then why would they be worried about other students that don’t have the vaccine because they are safe from catching Covid because they have the vaccine.”

As things change with Covid almost daily, students at Lake Shore all have differing opinions on how to act accordingly.