Prairie South Institutes Mask Mandate For City Elementary Schools

The school year may have started out maskless for Moose Jaw students in the Prairie South School Division (PSSD) but starting on Monday September 13th that is about to change.

Effective Monday all PSSD pre-K to Grade 8 in Moose Jaw will be required to wear masks inside the school as well as on school buses, The new mask rules do not apply to PSSD schools not located in Moose Jaw.

According to a letter posted on PSSD’s Facebook page the move was made due to the “increased community transmission of COVID - 18 in the City of Moose Jaw” that PSSD made the decision to institute a mask mandate in their Moose Jaw elementary schools.

As part of the mandate all visitors to PSSD elementary schools in Moose Jaw must wear masks.

PSSD’s letter also states there will be “mask breaks”: during lunch hour and recess and during outdoor activities so long as proper social distancing can be maintained.

At the start of the year the Holy Trinity Catholic School Division required its students to wear masks while PSSD did not.

PSSD would also like to encourage students, staff and visitors to wear masks at other elementary school’s in their system as well as in high schools but at this time it is not being mandated to do so.