On January 7th, 2022 students in the MCPS system received an email about the county's new approach to handling outbreaks of COVID-19. This policy states that the county will no longer be following the 5% rule, and will instead be "individually evaluating" every school's situation to assess if they need to be shut down or not. This is incredibly dangerous for students of all ages and grade levels, and for our teachers and in-school administrators. The Omnicron variant of COVID-19 is not a joke and is incredibly viral and dangerous. Putting our futures on the line like this is unacceptable, and today, I ask students all across the county to add their names to and share this petition to show the county that putting the safety of them and their peers on the line like this is not something they will stand for.