It is a rule many likely did not notice or certainly many did not listen to, but it was required. Now, a little change has arrived. Oregonians do not need to wear masks in public outdoor settings, state health officials said this past Tuesday, taking away a COVID-19 pandemic mandate required for three months.
Monday was the first day students from Klamath Falls City Schools could take advantage of the lifted mandate during recess and lunch breaks. Roosevelt Elementary School first grade teacher Christine Sreniawski and her first-grade class took advantage of the relief.
It was a sight to see. The first graders threw off their masks and raced toward the playground during a 2:15 p.m. recess time. To the students, it was peculiar. Sreniawski, the same teacher so accustomed to making sure they had their masks on inside Roosevelt, was the same person telling them they could have their masks off during recess.
“We did not know the District was going to do anything about it until this morning when they made an announcement over the intercom and we received emails,” Sreniawski, who is in her eighth year at Roosevelt, 24th year as a teacher, said. “They were way excited to be able to take their masks off for a little bit outside because it is hard to keep them on all day and it is hot, especially when they are outside playing.”
For students at Roosevelt and at Mills Elementary School, Pelican Elementary School and Conger Elementary School, it was the first time their students could have their masks off this year, other than a brief moment at the beginning of the school year before the public outdoor mask mandate was placed.
“When they are outside, they can forget they can have them off, and then leaving them outside is a problem, too. There are some kids who pull down their masks when they are talking because they think I cannot hear them, so I just have to remind them, some kids, more than others,” Sreniawski said. “But they are not defiant about that. I have not had any problems with kids who have told me they are not going to wear it.”
Before the mandate was lifted, it was only permitted for the students to have their masks off when they were on lunch break, along with a 10-minute moment in the morning when they could eat their breakfast in the classroom. Students are also given a five-minute moment to eat a snack later in the day. Other than lunch time, the 15 minutes was the only span of time they could be without a mask.
The students could have their masks off if they were six-feet apart from each other while being outside but with the weather being as cold as it has been lately in the Klamath Basin, playing and being outside was not always an option.
After a see-saw year last year, which saw students have to rotate between being in school and having school online, it is one step forward for students at KFCS to feel a sense of normal. During half days last year, students did not have recess and when they were able to play outside, they had to be play separated at Roosevelt’s playground with masks on.
“This is great that we can be outside without masks on,” Roosevelt office assistant Shelby Joyner said. “I do recess duty but for Mrs. Renee (Ferns), she does not get to see them without masks on so it is great to see their smiling faces and actually see what some of them look like.”