By Bailee Hilliard

To be or not to be is truly the unanswered question of the last two years. From masking up and despising every second of it, to social distancing from friends and loved ones. These last few years have not been easy for anyone, especially students. 

Some believe that superintendents and principals desire to be the bad guy in the situation by saying “mask up” or  “6 feet at all times,” but for Mr. Pearce and Mr. Hackney that really isn’t the case. 

Mr. Pearce said “Nobody was looking forward to having  to enforce the masks for a second year in a row.” 

The beginning of the 2021 school year for Flora High School was normal. No masks, only 6 feet social distancing, and a little bit more freedom than the previous year. 

“As we started to see the guidelines that were being developed for this school year, we began to realize that masks were likely going to be a part of the guidelines and recommendations,”         

Mr. Hackney said.

 “The hardest part is the discouragement that we are facing similar challenges that we encountered last school year.” Mr. Hackney when asked about the struggles of masks.

` When the topic of voting on making masks mandatory again the student body’s morale dropped. Sadly, the board ended up passing the mandate, and we were all right back where we started. 

Keeping the morale of students up is going to be difficult during this remasking, but when asked how they planned on keeping their spirits up, they each had relatively happy responses. 

Mr. Hackney said, “thankfully most students are close to three feet apart so there will be less quartines,” with less  quarantined people, that means our sports and clubs will be in full swing. 

“Now we won’t have to cancel as many events coming up,” Hackney said.

So, although it is not 100% normal this year, it does not mean there isn’t a chance for fun times and a good school year. We as a student body just have to keep our heads and hopes high.