It’s no surprise COVID-19 has completely changed how students and staff have interacted with the school as a whole. Around mid-2020 we were all completely from home and scrambling to figure out what we were going to do about learning. Additionally, it was around this time last year that it was still mandatory to wear masks and try to social distance. So what’s changed?

Well for starters, mask requirements were lifted as of March 28, 2022. However, you can still wear any sort of face covering if you want. This also extends to the buses as well and not just the classroom.

There is also the addition⎯ or subtraction ⎯ of contact tracing. This had also been removed from Hartford Public Schools policy in March.

But what do people think of all this? We’ve surveyed and quickly interviewed several students and teachers at University High School to hear their thoughts on the matter.

“You know me.” was the response from Mr. Eaton, who would prefer to keep his mask on as much as possible.

“I don’t care about it too much,” said Rahin Ambia ‘24 who had kept his mask on all last year but decided to ditch it for the new school year. He had only really kept his mask on really because it was school rules but didn’t care much one way or another about it.

Jacob Julian ‘23 says he “[doesn’t] really care that much since most people nowadays don’t really care about COVID-19.” He took his mask off as soon as the mandates were lifted and he hasn’t looked back since.