Wearing masks will not be required on campus as of Oct. 18, per Director of Operations Jim Heynderickx. The decision was made by the Senior Leadership Team based on the number of COVID-19 cases within the school and the U.K., student vaccination rates and feedback from members of the school community.

However, there are still certain situations which will require masks to be worn. This includes when students and faculty attend school assemblies, as well as use school and public transport.

When evaluating the mask mandate, Heynderickx said there were a low number of COVID-19 cases and a high number of vaccinations as communicated in an email to the community Oct. 5. This led the SLT to make mask use optional in school corridors and classrooms.

“One reason why we were having a low number of cases here was a very high rate of vaccination,” he said. “Based on that, we were feeling we could at least test the idea of making mask use elective.” 

Yifei Yan (’24) said he agrees with lifting the mask mandate due to the high vaccination rate among the students revealed in statistics from the email and lower possibility of transmission.

“A high percentage of ASL students have been vaccinated in the past, so the risk of transmitting disease is relatively low,” he said.

Mask regulations will next be reviewed by Nov. 5, and Heynderickx said they will most likely continue to be reviewed every two or three weeks.