As of October 31st, 2022, Washington State will no longer be considered to be in a “state of emergency” for COVID-19. This will remove all remaining COVID-19 policies still in place, especially in relation to health care facilities.

At Central Kitsap High School, however, the mask mandate and social distancing rules were long abandoned as of the end of the previous school year. 

A lot of students do seem to believe that the COVID-19 relief policies enforced by the school the previous school year were effective at preventing the spread of COVID-19. They are, however, confused about why the policies were suddenly taken away, especially when cases had been rising. 

“At the end of last year when it was really bad, I just thought it was really bizarre,” Lillian Durben, a senior at CKHS, said. “That school was randomly being like… in the last three months they’re just like, ‘go ham’.”

CKHS’ sudden policy change confused several other students, who shared the same sentiment that while the COVID-19 relief policies were effective at reducing the spread, their removal at the end of last school year was confusing.

“I think they should have continued, because COVID-19 was still a problem. Cases were still rising, but they still let you take off your mask,” Mia Tatekawa, CKHS Senior, says.

Most students believe that COVID-19 policies, of at least the mask mandate, should have stayed implemented into the current school year. Some view specifically the mask mandate as more of a matter of personal comfort than a strict requirement. Others view it as a common courtesy.

“There was also a social pressure during that time,” Durben continues, “I don’t think it was a bad social pressure.”

“I wear a mask because it’s more comfortable for me,” Walker, CKHS Senior says.

The amount of COVID-19 cases in the state have gone down during the time leading up to and after CKHS’ decision to get rid of the bulk of their COVID-19 policies, but COVID-19 is still spreading, even among the vaccinated. Both Durben and Tatekawa say they know several people who have come down with the virus recently or within the period between school years. 

From a district perspective , COVID-19 cases have been greatly reduced for most schools in the 2022-23 school year, although CKHS vastly exceeds the amount of cases for both staff and students compared to the rest of the district, with student cases exceeding nearly twice as much as the next highest school minimum.

This can be due to many factors, such as overcrowding in the school, as well as COVID-19 vaccines still not being part of the required immunizations for students at the beginning of each school year.

Things are looking up, however. COVID-19 cases have gone down within the past month, with very few reported current cases being seen. This could coincide with the new updated COVID-19 booster being available as of the beginning of September 2022. 

However, with flu season quickly approaching, this begs the question; will cases increase, even with the booster? Can we ever truly “go back to normal”?