Quote:
Originally Posted by kenoc7
"If someone refuses to wear a mask because this is a free country...what's the school's position?"
Wearing a mask has - or should - have nothing to do with being a free country. It is about public health, the common good and protecting others, and others protecting us.
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I agree with you. When I started teaching at my state university in 1986, students were allowed to smoke in the unventilated hallways and teachers were allowed to smoke in their offices and in the classrooms. (They weren’t allowed to drink on campus, though my department chair kept a bottle of scotch in his desk drawer.) Then students were not allowed to smoke in the halls. Then they weren’t allowed to smoke in their dorm rooms. Then teachers weren’t allowed to smoke in the classroom. The teachers weren’t allowed to teach in their offices. (This led to most teachers who smoked giving it up.) To me this seems like a matter of personal freedom (though I’ve never smoked a cigarette). Oddly, no one complained, not, even the union leaders who were heavy smokers.
I would assume that if masks are required at my school, masks will be worn. It’s not a matter of freedom. I wouldn’t be allowed to go to class without pants, even if I want to. Does that infringe on my freedom? Sure. But I live with it. I wouldn’t have been allowed to make sexist or racist remarks in class. I could lose my job over it. Does that infringe on my freedom of speech? Yes! But I didn’t want to, anyway. Even freedom of expression and speech has many limits in this country. So does freedom od assembly, and the press, and worship. Freedom from face masks was not enshrined in the Bill of Rights.