Trigger Warnings: Depression, COVID-19

The Westborough School Committee has decided to move the date establishing optional masking from January 10, 2022 to December 6, 2021, on the basis that the school community’s vaccination rates meet the state requirment. Also, someone at the most recent school committee meeting added that wearing masks is causing anxiety and depression in students. This could not be further than the truth.

Neurotypicals (people who don’t have depression, anxiety, or ADHD/ADD, and aren’t autistic) can sometimes be quick to assume that the issue goes as deep as is visible on the surface, when in actuality, most problems have much deeper roots.

This is where the fallacy lies: Students like myself aren’t depressed because of masks. They’re depressed because of COVID-19. The school committee has assumed that correlation equals causation, that because the rate of depression has risen since mandatory masking, it must be the masks that are the cause. The reality of the problem is the anxiety and trauma that stems from living through a global pandemic unlike any humanity has seen in nearly 100 years.

By bringing in the students’ opinions and experience, we can better gauge how to proceed. How? Teenagers don’t always talk to their guardians about what’s bothering them. A parent might be able to tell that their child is upset, but unless the child chooses to talk about it, the most any parent can do is make an assumption, and assumptions are often wrong. The school committee is composed solely of adults, some of which might not even have children, so what they think is going on in the heads of students is extremely likely to be inaccurate to a degree. Teenagers can also be prone to be upset when others speak for them, especially without consulting them first, which is exactly what has happened.

Mandatory masking, though not 1oo% effective, given that some students refuse to wear their masks properly, it still undoubtedly protected unvaccinated individuals, even if it’s only to a small extent. By allowing masks to be optional to vaccinated students, we are putting all of our trust in the idea that everyone is going to be honest about whether or not they’ve received the vaccine. And people can, and will lie about these sorts of things.

There’s also the issue of “mask-shaming” and “anti mask-shaming.” Students who continue to wear their masks after December 6 may be bullied for doing so, and vice versa.

I suggest the school committee, as well as the Westborough community as a whole revisits the discussion about mandatory vs. flexible masking. I consider the decision to move the flexible masking date an unwise one.

About the Author:

William Campbell is a senior at Westborough High School. He is transgender and autistic, and his interests include history, science, art, and human rights.