Hellobee Boards

My kids are in 2nd grade and kindergarten. My second grader is the only one in her class who wears a mask, but from what I see walking her to school, I think there are plenty of others in other classes still. I don't think she's gotten too much pushback from kids in her class though. (At least, she still agreeably wears the mask each day - and she usually lets me know right away if she's upset about something, so I'm sure I would have heard if it were a problem!)

From what I've seen volunteering in my kindergartener's class, I think about half the kids (and both teachers) wear masks in class. Obviously, lunch in the cafeteria is a different story for both kids - no masks there all around.

None of the kids at my first graders school wear masks. We’re in upstate NY.

@bakingdoodle: ditto here, my 9 year old is one of 2 kids in her class who wears a mask. My daughter is very comfortable with it and feels better in big groups with it. Obviously that changes during lunch and such, but it's better than nothing at all I think. As far as I know no one has given her a hard time about it. That said we're in a pretty "liberal" and diverse area so depending on where you are that may not be as much of a case.

@Lahela017: this. When our district when mask optional we tried to get DD (then 7) to keep wearing her mask. The first few days she did but then she was coming home miserable every day because she was the only kid in her class wearing one. We kept pushing but quickly realized we were just setting up a situation for her to lie to us - she would put it on in the morning to get on the bus but would be taking it off at school. Staff were no longer allowed to enforce mask wearing for anyone, so no one was stopping her from removing it. So we stopped trying because it was making every school day miserable for all of us to fight about it. We didn’t even try when she started second grade this year. She wears it at other locations with us without any issue - she just did not handle being the only kid in a classroom with it on.

Our elementary school is about 850 kids and I would say 5% of kids wear masks on a daily basis. That number seems to go up a bit the week before and the week after a vacation.

This has been such a tough conflict in our house. Our kids never minded masking until *everyone else* stopped (liberal Chicago suburb). Then they felt awkward w the peer pressure. They know I want them to mask, but just don’t. I really can’t force them (3rd, 1st, preK) and the teachers def don’t model masking or enforce parents wishes.
So we’ve been so so sick this year. Covid, flu a, covid again, long covid fevers and then a post viral pneumonia. It’s terrible to feel out of step with the entire community. It makes me feel crazy. But my long covid (from when I got it in the summer from a patient) is finally better (after being exposed to the kids covid, somehow kicked my LC). And my mom died from a rare post viral autoimmune illness so I think I’m just always going to be more cautious than 99% of people.
Really hoping for an intranasal vaccine that actually stops transmission

But I don’t have anything encouraging to say about masking in public school, so sorry. I’d make sure the grandparents are up to date on their boosters. And stock up on the rapid tests before the “pandemic emergency” funding ends in May

@ChitownRo: What you mentioned about feeling out of step with the community resonates with me so much. I hope your LC symptoms continue to improve. I developed POTS after having covid in August (kids caught it the first week of school...they were wearing masks, but that only does so much when they're the only ones). I'm starting to get my POTS and other LC symptoms under better control, but it's definitely part of why I'm continuing to be extra cautious. We've been so sick this winter too in spite of everything, and it feels a little hopeless sometimes. It's been a rough season! I'm counting my blessings right now that we've had a couple good weeks of everyone "healthy" in the last month. It's been so refreshing!

@caitcat: so sorry about LC/ POTS. Hoping your symptoms improve asap. My symptoms weren’t terrible, chronic cough and decreased exercise tolerance, but I just don’t like the concept of long term consequences of a “mild” viral illness.