When the mask mandate was lifted for Kansas City schools on January first, the Raytown Quality School District also removed their mask requirement. With this change, social distancing and contact tracing protocols were also removed. This poses a danger to students, staff, educators, and their families. As COVID numbers continue to climb and new variants are made apparent it is irresponsible to not wear a mask regardless of vaccination status. In order to protect our community and student body masks must be mandatory in our school district. Safety should be of utmost priority at the moment, and requiring masks in our schools would help to ensure this. Those who sign this petition agree that a mask requirement for the Raytown School District would be beneficial to increasing the safety of everyone in our schools as we experience new peaks in COVID cases.