You can’t walk down the hallways at Duncan Middle School without seeing students and teachers wearing masks.
And all of the masks are different, from surgical to stylish to homemade. Some have cool patterns while others support a favorite sports team. Some relate to pop culture, while others are good for a chuckle.
Many of the masks at Duncan Middle School are unique.
Students, teachers and various staff members are wearing different masks that help show their personalities.
David Ellis, who is a Title I aid, draws something new on his mask each day. He has featured such characters as Popeye the Sailor Man and Batman.
Ellis, who takes students’ temperatures at the front door in the mornings, gets a lot of different reactions, from “What is it?” to “That’s really cool.”
“I like drawing on them because I don’t like plain masks,” he said.
Each day, he gets to see and hear students’ reactions when they walk through the door.
Prior to the start of the school year, the Duncan Board of Education passed a mandatory mask rule for all school sites in the district. With this rule in place, all students, teachers, administrators, parents and anyone else who may enter a school building have to wear masks at school sites.
The mask rule was in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The school district has supplied masks to the schools for students and teachers to use. These masks can be washed up to 100 times before needing to be disposed of. Still many people have chosen to buy or make their owns masks.
For some people, including Ellis, masks can be art.
They don’t have to be bland or boring. They don’t have to generic and look like everyone else’s. They’re a safety feature that can also coordinate with outfits or personalities.
