District Reinstates Mask Mandates After Students Get Sick

REEDS SPRING, Mo. (AP) — A southwest Missouri school district that dropped its mask mandate earlier this month has decided to reinstate it after several students became infected with COVID-19, leading to dozens of quarantines.

The 1,700-student Reeds Spring district had gone weeks without a positive case when it decided to make masks optional beginning April 22. Several other districts in the Springfield-area also have ditched mask orders in recent weeks, the Springfield News-Leader reports.

“It’s getting harder and harder to even get kids to keep those masks on as they are seeing people, adults and everyone in the community, not wearing masks,” Superintendent Cody Hirschi said in a video at the time.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/missouri/articles/2021-04-30/district-reinstates-mask-mandates-after-students-get-sick