KILLEEN, Texas — School began on Monday, Aug. 16 for Killeen ISD. Students returned to the classroom with district officials encouraging students to wear masks but without an official mandate.
"I'm afraid for my kid and other kids in this school since our governor denied an opportunity for mandating masks for everybody," said Zoila Recinos, the mother of a second grade student at Skipcha Elementary. "Of course my daughter comes to school in a mask."
She is upset by the lack of a mandate and said her daughter went to school today with a mask.
"For your child to be sick and you to be unable to be next to your child, it's a scary situation."
While the mask mandate was a large cloud over the day, many students were just happy to be back in the classroom and with friends. After a 2020 school year that prevented traditional learning, 10th grade Harker Heights student Joseph Hornbuckle was excited to be back.
"The toughest part for me was you never really meet people. You might become friends through a chat of a virtual class but you never really actually meet them," he said.
His favorite part of the day was an easy answer.
"I get human interaction again."