A Maryland high school senior is in trouble for refusing to wear his face mask in class… on a Zoom call.
Luke O’Neil is a 17-year-old with learning differences. His mom said he doesn’t understand why his Rockville High School teacher insists he wears a mask when he’s alone on his laptop in his own room doing virtual learning. He said:
“I have no clue. For nothing. The school will never open!”
Montgomery County Public Schools spokeswoman Gboyinde Onijala said it’s just for practice for children in the Learning for Independence Program, to get them comfortable with masks before returning to in-person learning. She added:
“The teacher and the Learning for Independence (LFI) team have been preparing the LFI students for the possible return to school by practicing wearing masks on screen for five minutes as part of the daily routines of the opening lesson. Students absolutely are not required to wear masks for virtual lessons….this is just for practice.”
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Carolle O’Neil, Luke’s mother, said there are twenty children and six or seven teachers and aides in his Zoom classes for special needs children. Luke feels like it’s a tremendous waste of time and “boring” when the teachers spend long minutes trying to get all the children, one after the other, to put on masks while they watch through their computers.
Luke and his parents said the mask demand comes right at the start of class, and Luke shuts off his camera and mutes his microphone because he thinks its so ridiculous. He said:
“You don’t need that. It’s off-topic. School just goes down. It’s like worse and worse.”
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Luke’s parents said he’s happy to wear a mask when he needs one, but he thinks it’s irrational to wear one in his room. As for Luke, he said he’s “done” with 2020, because it has been a terrible year. Luke’s father, Dan O’Neil, added:
“He needs to interact with people. Having a mask on prevents that.”
In a year that has been full of challenges for students, especially those with learning differences, the online mask requirement has been one more hurdle to learning for Luke.
Luke’s parents said they’re so frustrated, they’ve had to hire a personal tutor to work one-on-one with their son.
