It is time to remove the mask mandate for employees. If masking is optional for public school students, masking for employees of school divisions should be a personal choice as well. Adults in school settings can easily be in a room of 30+ non-social distanced, non-masked students for hours a day. Keeping only the adults in masks is not protecting us from disease transmission. Plus, having the teachers and school leaders in masks has made and continues to make verbal communication in the classroom, which is of high importance in education, yet one more challenge for public educators to figure out. Right now, there are 8-year-olds making the decision not to mask (well in theory, parents' decision but, no shocker, they don't always listen to their parents when they are out of their sight) so why are public educators, as adults, not allowed a choice?