Principal Tom Lietz stood by the door, distributing masks to the maskless.

On Monday, Jan. 10, masks were required at Utica High for the first time.

“For masking, there is no set number [to force a requirement],” Lietz said, “but we’re generally trying to look at our population and once we have over 10% of kids out for COVID, or any reason, we have to take a look at what is going on and what we can do to mitigate that.”

Some were upset with the mandate and tried to protest by not wearing masks whenever possible; junior Ryan Kruckeberg posted about it on social media.

“No one protested but me and a few,” Kruckeberg said. “My friends refused to wear masks, because forget that.”

One district school, Stevenson High, switched to virtual schooling after numbers continued to increase, despite a mask mandate.

“We would need to be at a very high number of students out with steadily rising or surging community spread and new cases,” Lietz said. “Again, the point of the mask mandate is to give a couple weeks to prevent any of that from occurring.”

At this point, the mask mandate ends Jan. 25.