You could say it's gone viral.

But please don't because that's dumb and we're better than that (although I'm clearly not). But hey, you know who's a goddamn hero? Hanna Watters, a sophomore at North Paulding High School in Dallas, Georgia. You know why? Because this:

Pictured: like one, maybe two kids wearing masks. Although weirdly they probably
had to walk through metal detectors and have their bags searched. Because America.

"Whatta scoop!"

-Watters (I hope) 

She captioned her now viral (sorry) photo with:

"Day two at North Paulding High School. It is just as bad. We were stopped because it was jammed. We are close enough to the point where I got pushed multiple [sic] go to second block. This is not ok. Not to mention the 10% mask rate"

-Hanna Watters, teen reporter

(I'm not being sarcastic, I

am 100% pro-muckraker)

Well, they insist it's a punishment, but
out of school is where the virus isn't so...

Watters, and at least one other student posted photos like this online showing students at their high school packed into a hallway exercising their State of Georgia-guaranteed right (we'll get to that) to recklessly endanger their lives and those of others by not wearing masks. But weirdly, instead of immediately shutting the school down and throwing Watters a socially-distanced ceremony where they give her the keys to the city and a Zoom-parade or whatever, the school suspended gave her a five-day out-of-school suspension.

Now if every student in America could
just violate school policy we'd be good.

Technically she was violating school policy. Policies in fact. At North Paulding, and I would imagine most schools, students are prohibited from using their phones without permission from the administration and from posting picture of minors without consent. And that's a good, perfectly reasonable policy. But. But we're in the middle of a national crisis made exponentially worse by inept leadership and the insane decision to pack school kids into enclosed spaces and not insist they take even the simplest of precautions against a highly contagious disease that totally kills people.

Otott, seen here taking the "super"
out of superintendent. Burn. 

The district superintendent, Brian Otott, released a letter to parents saying:

"There is no question that the photo does not look good. I can understand if your first reaction was one of concern...Some individuals on social media are taking this photo and using it without context to criticize our school reopening efforts. Under the COVID-19 protocols we have adopted, class changes that look like this may happen, especially at a high school with more than 2,000 students."

-Superintendant Brian Otott, making 

the case that: hey, whatta ya gonna do?

Above: a graver offense then
spreading a pandemic. Evidently.

But aside from his passive voice instance that gross incompetence just sort of happens sometimes, the worst part is that he's backed up by the state's policy regarding masks:

"Wearing a mask is a personal choice and there is no practical way to enforce a mandate to wear them. What we will do is continue to strongly encourage all students and staff to wear masks."

-Brian Otott, a man inexplicably put 

in charge of the education of children

Really? There's no practice way? To be clear, there are school policies that prohibit students from using their phones for social media during school hours and from posting pictures of fellow students online. And again, these are good, sensible policies. Policies backed up by the threat of suspension. But when there's an out-of-control, highly contagious respiratory illness that spreads like wildfire in enclosed spaces like, say a crowded school, wearing a mask is a personal choice and Hanna Watters gets a five day suspension.

Hey, I'm not an educator, but what if they told students
that they have to wear masks? And then maybe suspend the
students who refuse? You know, like a policy or something?