The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has decided, as of November 30, to keep the mask mandate until further notice, which originally was set to expire at the beginning of next year. Established initially by Governor Wolf, the mask mandate has been highly controversial throughout the state.
There is still much unknown about the new Omicron Covid-19 variant, and there are global concerns about the dangers and contagiousness of the virus. This might impact masking policies because scientists do not know how effective the vaccines are for this variant. On December 3, Pennsylvania reported their first confirmed positive case for the Omnicron variant, and New York City recently changed their masking guidelines due to the new variant. While they are not mandating masks again, they are strongly advising residents to mask indoors.
Many students expect the masking policy to continue at AIS because of the dangers of new variants and continued spread of the virus. The need for caution seems to be clear. As Agnes Irwin student Rowan Pauzano ‘25 put it, “we (students) will most definitely have to (wear masks for the rest of the year).” Similarly, Heidi Reller ‘25 said, “whatever rules are made by the state, I feel like they should be followed by schools.”
