‘Keep it on.’
It was news to Asmaa Khalil, the mother of a fourth grader, that the city’s mask mandate for schoolchildren 5 and older had been lifted.“I didn’t know that,” a surprised-sounding Ms. Khalil, 27, said outside P.S. 41, an elementary school in Brownsville, on Monday morning. Just over 26 percent of students there are fully vaccinated.One thing hadn’t changed, though: Ms. Khalil was dropping off her son, Atef Ahmed, 9, with instructions to keep wearing his mask in school.“I would rather not wear the mask,” said Atef, who is vaccinated. “In gym, when you run, it feels like you can’t breathe.”“Keep it on,” Ms. Khalil said as she sent Atef inside. “I love you.”Kareem Middleton, 33, was up bright and early to send his son, Jalen, off to his third grade classroom at P.S. 284 nearby. Mr. Middleton, who is vaccinated, said he told his son, who is not, to keep wearing the face covering. Just 10.7 percent of students at the school are fully vaccinated, and Mr. Middleton said he wanted to wait and see how the vaccine affected him before letting his son receive the shots.He said he didn’t think any of the mandates, including the one that required people to show proof of vaccination to enter restaurants and certain other indoor venues, should have been lifted.