Over the past year and a half, wearing a mask in schools has become a heavily debated topic. There is a large group of people on both sides of the argument that are very vocal about their stance. I believe that having a mask mandate in schools is something that should be optional and only worn if the student wants to. Although COVID-19 rates are rising, a mass number of students are either already vaccinated or fully vaccinated which is something that should be considered. I believe if the schools want students to be vaccinated, they need to reward them with something such as not forcing masks to be worn while in school. If this were the case, then we would see a major jump in vaccination rates which is something that is particularly important to those within the school system. Other students would agree that issuing this mandate would make those feel better while in school. Ethan Reese, who is also a student at Roswell says that he agrees that it would be positive if the schools made mask non-mandatory if you are vaccinated. He stated this on the topic “Yes because the vaccine allows a low chance of getting the virus and a little to no chance of being hospitalized.” Giving the students the option to choose whether to wear a mask or not is something I believe very strongly in and believe it should be a priority to have the students’ opinion in mind.