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Masking will be recommended but no longer required in Clark County Public Schools starting on Feb. 22, with a few exceptions.

The district announced the change to its policy in an email communication sent to families Friday afternoon.

“This decision doesn’t come lightly, just like our decision to keep the mask when we started school didn’t either,” the communication reads.

District officials say in the communication that they closely monitored their internal and community infection rate data and discussed it with different leadership teams and its COVID team.

The district says that it will continue with other prevention measures.

“We will continue to implement other mitigation measures, such as reminders for hand washing, deep sanitizing measures for buildings in evenings, hand sanitizers available, extra during the day cleaning of doorknobs and high touch areas, and having masks available, etc.”

District officials ask in the communication that families discuss the matter with their students and send them prepared with a mask if the student still wishes to wear one.

Due to a federal mandate, students will still be required to wear a mask on school buses, and masks will also still be required for students and staff at the Clark County Preschool.

George Rogers Clark sophomore Samantha Layton said she is pleased the school’s mask mandate has ended, but she noted that several students refused to wear masks all along.
“Students would wear their masks when they walked into school, but they were many people who took their masks off after that,” she said. “Some kids would wear there masks throughout the day, but others wouldn’t wear their masks and nobody really said anything. Pretty much I took my mask off too.”