It has been nearly three years since the first outbreak of the Corona Virus in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.

Since then, we have gone through a pandemic, several quarantines, and reinforced restricted guidelines on social distances.

Present-day, several states have scheduled lifting mask mandates in schools including the state of New Jersey. The lifting of the mask mandate will take place beginning March 7, 2022 in NJ although depending on where you are located in the US, it varies.

For more less-compact states such as Nevada or Rhode Island, they lifted it between January and February while cities such as New York are more strict on the matter where their school mask mandate is still in place.

With New Jersey, Governor Murphy announced that the state’s mask mandate for schools will be lifted on March 7th, as stated above.

This is an important event because it signifies our improving situation concerning the pandemic. This shows that there is an increase in vaccinations, decline in cases, transmission rates, and hospitalizations. This will usher in a new beginning of normalcy as we begin seeing familiar faces again. I wonder what Hawthorne High School students think about this?

– “I feel happy that things are finally going back to normal, but I hope that everyone stays safe and the numbers stay down.”

– “Personally, I think it would be weird to see people walk around maskless since masks became the new norm although I am concerned that cases will go on the rise after the lifted mandate.”

– “I don’t really agree with it, I personally think that the mask should still be mandatory because people will still get extremely sick. It is more of a risk for the school and the community.”

– “I don’t think it’s the greatest idea, but I’m not the one in control. I feel like cases are still up so maybe it would not be the best time.”

– “In terms of the mandate being lifted, the best way to put it, is that I feel weird. For the most part, I’m excited as the lift means progress and beginning to transition out of the pandemic. However, at the same time the better part of our high school career has been spent with a mask on, so going to school without one seems rather odd.”