Assistant Head of School for Finance and Operations Jane Davis sent out an email to the community March 10 announcing the lift of the indoor mask mandate. Anyone approved to be on campus who is fully vaccinated and boosted will be allowed to remove their masks in any indoor spaces beginning Monday, March 14.

According to the email, masks will only be required for individuals identified as being a close contact to others who have COVID-19 or those who have tested positive but received a day five negative test and have returned to campus. Such individuals will be required to wear a mask for a period of 10 days, which begins on the date they are informed of their close contact or initial positive COVID-19 test.

“We made the decision in alignment with the state of California and the Los Angeles Department of Public Health,” Davis said. “Because of the astronomical number of cases that have come down over the last month, and the fact that we had zero cases in our last testing … we felt strongly that people should have that option to remove the mask indoors.”

Currently, 98% of the community is vaccinated. With this high vaccination rate and low positivity rates for on campus testing,  the community was notified via a separate email Feb. 15 that they no longer need to wear masks when outdoors. Many students may still choose to wear a mask and Davis asked students in her email to respect everyone’s personal decisions. 

“I will take my mask off with my friends, but with people I am not as close with or I do not know, I will not take it off,” seventh grader Serenity Jones said. “I am probably going to keep it on indoors, for the most part, and for my own comfort.” 

Five hundred and twelve students received a survey via email by The Oracle, asking their personal comfort level with the new lift of the indoor mask mandate. Two hundred students responded. See below the responses to the questions organized in pie charts.

“When I get into class, I really would like to take my mask off because it has been two years of having to wear masks,” freshman Ella Schwartz said. “I want to be able to see my friends’ faces and because I am triple vaccinated, and a lot of my peers are as well, I personally feel very comfortable, and think this was a big step on the road to normalcy after COVID.”