Across the Border

Washington state and Idaho state. They don’t have much in common other than maybe our restaurants. Idahoans don’t exactly like Washington plates coming over for more reasons than one.

They have their reasons and let’s just say it’s a whole different world across the Idaho border into Washington. 

The mask mandate has almost made it impossible to go anywhere so they come over to Idaho to fulfill their boredom or simply go out to eat at a sit down restaurant..

As for schools, Lakeland High School doesn’t enforce masks unlike other schools, especially in Washington. Lakeland attends school Monday through Friday and we are released an hour early. 

Logan Swanson, a Sophomore at East Valley High School states that, “I would attend online school but I enjoy seeing my friends, I’m used to the mask mandate so it doesn’t bother me.”

Another Sophomore at East Valley, Kyle Lund attends online school. Lund states, “I don’t like school, I hangout with my friends whenever we’re all available so not seeing each other at school doesn’t bother me. I don’t like wearing masks, which gave me another reason to attend online. As for COVID, it’s getting old.”

Students at Lakeland have complained about online classes, especially in the 2019-2020 school year because COVID didn’t give them time to plan so they had to act fast which resulted in a bit of poor coordination.

Lakeland High School’s principal, Trent Derrick, does his best to keep classrooms at a safe capacity that way teachers/staff can separate students’ desks to maintain distance. 

Walking or driving down the streets of Idaho, you may notice a lot of people don’t wear masks unless you head closer to Boise. You go into Washington, people don’t just wear masks outside in crowds, they wear them in their cars or walking with their family/friends.

Some may think it’s silly to wear a mask in your car because it’s usually their own car. But if people feel safe what’s the issue?

Even though Idaho and Washington feel differently about the mask mandate, there shouldn’t be a debate on who is right or wrong.

As people head to places in Idaho, the parks have people, kids are playing, teenagers are at the skate parks, restaurants are open and it almost looks normal. Washington doesn’t have as many people outside like Idaho does because their state has more cases than Idaho.

To sum it up, Washington’s schools and public locations can vary wherever you go. For example, Liberty Lake is more of an older folks community with Lakeside views, retired and/or working veterans and people living their lives. You don’t see them wearing masks much because they mostly have the same immunities. Unlike Spokane that is much bigger.