Photo by ajari via Wikimedia Commons
Orange County Public Schools will masks entirely optional for faculty and staff at the end of this month.
In an announcement shared today, the school district said that teachers would no longer be required to mask up starting on February 28.
"OCPS families and employees, due to the continuing decline of COVID-19 cases in our district and in the community, the use of face masks will be voluntary for all adults beginning Monday, Feb. 28. Remember, anyone exhibiting illness or symptoms of COVID-19 should stay home."
OCPS fought with the state over its mask mandates during some of the most severe COVID-19 outbreaks. Even so, they allowed their mandate for students to expire in November. Superintendent Barbara Jenkins, who led the fight against the DeSantis administration over the use of masks to keep students from spreading and contracting coronavirus, recently announced that she would retire at the end of this year.
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