After almost two years of masks, cohorts, and quarantining, Governor Hochul announced on February 27 that mask mandates would be lifted in New York schools, making masks optional in schools as of March 2. The Pelham Schools have abided by this legislation, allowing students and teachers to choose whether or not to wear masks. On March 2, Pelham students had the option on whether or not to wear masks. Some students decided to continue to wear masks, while the majority of students and teachers took their masks off.

Senior Kathryn Alexander said, “Since I have not had COVID yet, I am choosing to continue wearing a mask for now, even though I am fully vaccinated. I will probably stop wearing my mask eventually as COVID numbers decrease even more.”

Senior Colleen McDonald, who decided to not wear a mask, said, “It’s nice to see everyone’s faces now. I think a lot of people are happy to return to some sort of normal.”

After a week of the lifting of the mask mandate, more and more students and faculty members have begun to take their masks off.

Social distancing is still encouraged throughout the school, one example being with the pod seating at the senior talent show. PMHS also sent students home on February break with two COVID tests to take, one before they came to school on Monday, and another on Wednesday. The school-wide results from this COVID testing was another indicator that the school was ready to go mask-less.

Some students and faculty that are still wearing masks have expressed their concerns with the high exposure to potential COVID positive students, along with the school not requiring vaccination status. Despite concern, the majority of students and faculty have been more than happy to return to normalcy.