{"id":1473480,"date":"2022-05-12T18:14:38","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T22:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1473480"},"modified":"2022-05-12T18:14:42","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T22:14:42","slug":"maines-largest-city-reinstates-public-school-mask-mandates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/maines-largest-city-reinstates-public-school-mask-mandates\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine\u2019s Largest City Reinstates Public School Mask Mandates"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmaines-largest-city-reinstates-public-school-mask-mandates%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1473480&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/05\/2D965C2B-A164-4C30-91AC-D559C5E0127E-scaled.jpeg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Portland, Maine, has reinstated its COVID-19 mask mandate for public schools in the city amidst rising cases of the virus in the Pine Tree State.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, school kids in Maine\u2019s largest city had to put masks back on while indoors and on buses after Superintendent Xavier Botana notified the school district of the change earlier this week. Students had temporarily stopped wearing masks in March.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI understand how disappointing this change may be to many of you who stopped wearing a mask when masking became optional on March 14 at a time of low case counts,\u201d Botana <a href=\"https:\/\/wgme.com\/news\/local\/portland-schools-reinstate-mask-mandate-due-to-high-covid-19-transmission-rates\">said<\/a> in a statement. \u201cHowever, I cautioned at that time that if our school and community data changed, we might need to increase our mitigation strategies, including returning to masking in some schools or district wide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Families who chatted with local media \u2014 while somewhat supportive of the measures \u2014 seemed rather glum about the prospect of having to see their loved ones don a face mask again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat a bummer,\u201d David Saili, a brother of a middle school student in the district, <a href=\"https:\/\/wgme.com\/news\/local\/families-react-to-portland-school-district-bringing-back-mask-mandate\">told<\/a> CBS 13. \u201cThat\u2019s all I can say, really, it\u2019s so messed up. You know we cannot see people\u2019s smiles anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the professionals you know, people that are doctors, if they tell us that we have to wear a mask, then we have to. I believe it would be foolish of us to fight back or retaliate,\u201d Saili <a href=\"https:\/\/wgme.com\/news\/local\/families-react-to-portland-school-district-bringing-back-mask-mandate\">added<\/a>. \u201cEven if we don\u2019t like it, it has to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saili also added this his sister has trouble breathing while wearing the face-covering.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe says that she has trouble breathing sometimes, you know. It will be hard especially now that it\u2019s going to get hot. She can\u2019t even hear someone properly,\u201d Saili said.<\/p>\n<p>One parent agreed wholeheartedly with the school district\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think anything that\u2019s good for the country, that\u2019s good for people\u2019s safety and life. I agree with that,\u201d Roosevelt Stennett, a Portland School District parent, <a href=\"https:\/\/wgme.com\/news\/local\/families-react-to-portland-school-district-bringing-back-mask-mandate\">told<\/a> the media.<\/p>\n<p>Still, even Stennett appears to be longing for days of normalcy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s crazy. Like it\u2019s very crazy,\u201d Stennett said. \u201cI don\u2019t know. But I hope sometime we could get, get it done, get rid of it, or something you know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is now a time of high transmission, but few people in our schools are wearing masks. Adding to the risk is the fact that end-of-year ceremonies and other gatherings are taking place,\u201d Botana claimed. \u201cWhile we are not recommending changes to these events, all these factors make a return to required masking the safest course at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Portland, Maine, has reinstated its COVID-19 mask mandate for public schools in the city amidst rising cases of the virus in the Pine Tree State.On Thursday, school kids in Maine\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":326,"featured_media":1482781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1473480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/326"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1473480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1482781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1473480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1473480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1473480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}