My graduate school just announced that specifically because vaccine mandates are not allowed in my state (they literally said something along the lines of "unfortunately we cannot mandate vaccines for our staff and students to stop the spread of omicron") they are implementing a temporary (we know how this ends) mask mandate instead for the first month of school to "curb the spread of omicron."
I'm not going to wear a mask ever.
and I'm really nervous about it since I'm bad at social confrontation and my school is particularly trigger happy about reprimanding students for not following rules. What should I say in case they threaten to kick me out of the classroom for wanting to breath fresh air? I want to say I have medical and religious complications but they might default to some sort of "well since we announced the mandate before school started, it was your duty to file an exemption before coming" or something like that. Not sure what to do.
I'm just really nervous especially since they suddenly sprung this mandate a few days before the first class and would appreciate some advice right now. Thanks.
Two options. The easier one, do you have asthma? That’s protected under ADA and they are REQUIRED to accommodate you, you could then offer something like a faceshield as an alternative. I work at a university, been back on campus for a year now as the only non masked. The tougher one is making the argument that masks for covid are not FDA approved for that use, they are still under EUA and by federal law informed consent must be received. Both of these points are correct but one is more straightforward than the second.
I don't have any official records of asthma but I had to wear a mask during a professor meeting once last year and had to run out of the room to breathe and then told the professor I can't continue the meeting due to suffocation and anxiety. Not sure how valid that will be in the moment if they get confrontational.
Maybe see your primary care doc, tell them you have been experiencing situations like that (which would require a rescue inhaler) and then whether you are diagnosed with asthma or not the perception for the inhaler itself can serve as medical documentation of your condition. Then proceed accordingly as above.