Many Bay Area Students Ready for the End of Indoor School Mask Mandate
LIVERMORE (KPIX) -- With counties across the state having already dropped mask mandates, next Monday California schools will follow suit, eliminating all student and school staff mask requirements.
The state set March 11 as the last school day that indoor mask mandates would be in effect. A majority of Bay Area counties have given the green light for school mandates to end, but it remains up to schools districts to set their own rules if school officials want keep an indoor mandate in place.
Students at Rancho Las Positas Elementary School in Livermore are ready to have the choice of whether or not to wear a mask.
"I think I want it off, but it's up to my parents," said one youngster.
"Like, you could just like stay six feet away from everybody," said another student. "It will be much easier than wearing a mask on your face because, like, my little brother he has trouble wearing it at school."
"I am not going to wear it, because it doesn't really help because you breathe in your own germs," said a third child.
"I'm not going to wear one because I can't really...like, my teacher can't hear when I ask questions too much and and I don't like wearing them," said yet another student.
The California Teacher's Association urged school districts to "proceed with caution," saying that while some students may be ready to immediately remove their masks, others remain cautious.
"I think we should still wear them, because COVID is literally everywhere. So maybe we should just still wear them for maybe another month until everybody gets vaccinated to be on the safe side," said another elementary school student.