The Falls Church News-Press had coverage this week that, to be honest, was hard to noodle through, but appeared to say that, as of this coming Monday, students in that community’s school system nestled between Arlington and Fairfax would no longer have to wear masks inside school buildings.
The story, as many Falls-Church News Press articles are, was written in an elliptical fashion that assumes you had read every single previous article on this topic since the dawn of time, which I had not. In my confusion, I checked in with the communication staff at the Falls Church school system, who expeditiously provided clarity.
Yes, starting Monday students will be able to go commando, at least when it comes to masks. But there are some catches.
First, parents (or, if the students are 18 or older, the themselves) must fill out a form online to opt in, then have to print out the form and bring it to the school, where it will be filed away. After that, they should be good to go.
I say “should be” because we all know the likelihood that there will be massive resistance (see what I did there?) to the presence of any unmasked student in the halls from those who are pushing back against the tsunami-like tide of changing public opinion. So no doubt some students will need to put up with subtle and perhaps not-so-subtle pushback, probably less from their peers than from the supposed adults.
We’ll see.
Because of its relatively small size, the Falls Church school district should be able to finesse this with less hassle than any of the bigger school systems. But it will be interesting to see how soon it takes the other superintendents to start falling in line.
Fairfax’s super-if-not-always-duperintendent is headed out the door, and I’m not always sure Arlington’s actually knows what’s going on, so will they be in any rush to make changes that could bring a nasty retort from the masks-forever crowd? Now that the dominos have started falling, it’s just a matter of time; Fairfax County school leaders yesterday tried to convince the public that they were leading, not hindering, the effort. Swing and a miss, but shows which way the wind is blowing.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is all over the place, message-wise, and the sainted Dr. Fauci is probably busy booking trips out of the country for next winter so he can avoid the flurry of subpoenas that Republicans, should they luck into congressional majorities, will be lobbing his way.
A BLAST FROM THE MUSICAL PAST: In the lengthy dean’s list for the fall semester that we received from the College of William and Mary was one Andy Kim of Oakton.
Perhaps he knows, perhaps not, but back in the 1970s there was another Andy Kim, this one a Canadian rock star whose biggest hit was “Rock Me Gently.”
Wanna see? Sure you do! Click below.
- Scott McCaffrey