WATCH: Katelyn Rickert discusses mask mandates on college campuses
Campus Reform Correspondent Katelyn Rickert joins National Report to discuss her experience with the mask mandate policy at Georgetown University
Campus Reform Correspondent, Katelyn Rickert, a Georgetown University student, rejoined National Report to discuss the implications of mask mandates on college campuses.
Georgetown University in Washington D.C. set forth a mask mandate policy requiring students to wear a mask in class. The policy applies even to students who are fully vaccinated.
Faculty and speakers, on the other hand, may remove their mask if they are six-feet away from students.
”As soon as the class is over and everyone goes into the hallway everyone rips their mask off...and now suddenly COVID doesn’t exist anymore,” Rickert said in the interview.
She continues by describing the policy as “pointless” because “professors themselves don’t have to wear their masks in the classrooms.”
Although the CDC specifies that cloth masks offer the lowest form of protection, “Georgetown has no requirements about what mask you’re supposed to wear in class,” says Rickert.
[RELATED: Georgetown University imposes mask mandates this fall, against CDC guidelines]
”Georgetown requires everyone to get vaccinated and be boosted,” she added, ”they threatened us many times in emails [that] we’ll get academic probation if we go against any of their policies like wearing masks or not getting a booster shot.”
Many students are not in favor of the mask mandate, and the repercussions go beyond comfort and social interaction. “If you choose to go against it,” says Rickert, “your professor will call you out, they’ll cancel you, and it will affect your grades.”
For Rickert, a junior at Georgetown, much of her experience was spent taking Zoom classes at home.
Rickert and many other students continue to “speak publicly” against mask mandates.
However, “Georgetown never responds”, says Rickert, “they’ve never set a benchmark or a goal...they just continue to string us along on their power trip with COVID and we really just don’t know when it’s going to end.”
Watch the full interview above.
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