The Horace Man School, a preparatory academy in the Bronx, NY, sent an email to students and their families on Tuesday warning them that they will be suspended and possibly even expelled for failing to comply with the school’s mask mandate.
“Upon return to school on January 3, students in the Middle and Upper division requiring prompting to wear a mask appropriately will be sent home without access to remote instruction For the duration of a two-day suspension,” reads a statement emailed to families and obtained by New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz.
Insane email from Horace Mann school in NYC. HM already has a vaccine mandate for 5+ and booster mandate for 16+. Now your kid can be kicked out if they don't wear their mask correctly. pic.twitter.com/4FlNNDuyLq
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) December 21, 2021
Despite the fact that the students are children, the letter said those who wear the mask incorrectly will not be given any grace before the school takes disciplinary action.
“At HM, mask noncompliance for students is intentional noncompliance. There are no students at HM approved not to wear or struggling to understand or appreciate the need to consistently wear one’s mask over their mouth and nose. In almost every instance, noncompliant students already know who they are,” the statement said.
Per the notice, the policy will also be applied to “student participation in all co-curricular and interscholastic activities and events.”
Regardless of how many times the student was reminded, on the first infraction they will be removed from school and denied any form of learning for two days, according to the letter.
If an episode happens a “second time, you are telling me that HM is not the school for you,” it concluded.
Staff at the school have not yet responded to request for comment. The school reportedly also already imposed a vaccination requirement for children aged five and up and a booster requirement for children aged 16 and up.
School districts across the country are moving online temporarily or restoring Covid-19 restrictions amid a surge of cases attributed to the Omicron variant of the virus. For instance, in Prince George’s County, a district in Maryland bordering Washington, D.C., all schools have reverted to virtual instruction at least through the New year.