Students Walk-off Vista’s Campus in Protest of Mask Mandate

Students at Vista del Lago protest in front of the school offices on Feb. 16

Katie Conway

Students at Vista del Lago protest in front of the school offices on Feb. 16

Maggie Marrs, Editor-in-chief

Vista students joined in protest on Wednesday after it was announced by the California Department of Public Health that the recent recession of masks would not be included in K-12 schools or child care settings. 

“If you want to wear a mask we have nothing against that,” junior Jack Cole said. “We are tired of wearing a mask after like two years now…We’re not going to make fun of you for wearing a mask, we don’t care….we just want it to be over with.”

Students at Vista del Lago protest in front of the school offices on Feb. 16 (Katie Conway)
Students at Vista del Lago protest in front of the school offices on Feb. 16 (Katie Conway)
Students at Vista del Lago protest in front of the school offices on Feb. 16 (Katie Conway)

“I’m here because I was at lunch and saw everybody protesting and thought it would be a good idea to join the movement because I’m tired of wearing a mask to school,” senior Dominick Monterrosa said.   

During the protest, cars drove by cheering in support as well as many students who left campus in their cars to honk at the protesters. The police came later in the protest to control the crowds and cars driving by.   

Some students argued that they should be allowed to de-mask in school settings due to the recent super bowl which had 103,985 people attend, many unmasked.

”Kids shouldn’t have to wear masks to school. If we could have a Super Bowl on Sunday with seventy-plus thousand people, then we can wear no masks to school,” sophomore Evelyn Boyd said.

Other students opposed the protests believing it was inconsiderate to go maskless while the numbers are still high and many continue to suffer from Covid. 

“I think it’s inconsiderate that people protesting are just factoring in themselves and they’re not thinking of other people and how going maskless could affect the people around them,” said sophomore Abby Shupe. “There’s a lot of immunocompromised people and a lot of my friends and family are among that. Just because they are wearing a mask doesn’t mean they’re exactly protected either. Both parties need to wear a mask and I think people are just thinking of themselves when they are protesting against the mask mandate because they are not thinking of other people who don’t have the privilege of being surrounded by people who are protected.”

Principal Kim Moore said the school is doing the best they can to let students exercise their first amendment rights while keeping other students safe.

“I support students’ right to their free speech and their opinion…” said Moore. “We want to build a society going forward where we’re able to listen to each other and have empathy because I think that’s what going to make our world better and right now there’s a lot of divided people…even if we don’t share the same opinions I want to respect your viewpoint, I want to learn from you, I want to listen to you and this one’s challenging because it’s about my health potentially being impacted by others.”

Principal Moore also said that this is a state mandate, so the district and school have no control over whether schools can remove masks or not. “I’m here to uphold the district and the state mandates that we’ve been given and keep people safe…If they do have concerns I encourage them to reach out to me too and then hopefully we can find solutions together.”

 

(The protests continued until Thursday.)