Face masks now required on campus

COURTESY PHOTO

By Jennifer Fernandez, Staff Reporter

Amarillo College is now requiring the wearing of face masks for everyone on campus. Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart announced this new rule at a live streamed town hall meeting April 30. Mask use had been recommended in The Underground during previous weeks, but now no one will be permitted anywhere on campus without a mask.

We should wear them. We could be carriers and not know it.

Tiffany McHenry, nursing major

The mask requirement comes on the heels of earlier advice not to buy masks because they were in short supply for medical providers.

The general consensus was that masks were simply ineffective at preventing transmission of COVID-19. 

It turns out that masks are effective. Wearing masks daily for many people has become an unspoken social contract, a consideration for the health of others while in public spaces.

Before masks were mandated, Tiffany McHenry, a nursing major, said she had been wearing one when studying in The Underground.

“We should wear them. We could be carriers and not know it,” McHenry said. 

Wearing a mask cannot prevent one from contracting the virus, but prevents the spread from someone that is infected. 

Pamela Madden, the Underground supervisor, said the college is taking a number of precautionary measures to ensure the health and safety of the students and staff. 

“It’s to protect the students and ourselves,” Madden said. 

“We sanitize after every student. Every surface. The keyboard, mouse, station and chair gets sanitized after each use,” she said.

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