Masks came off for NYC schoolkids on Monday (except, tragically, for the very youngest). This move, months overdue, was greeted with joy by parents and children alike — but resisted by many adult “stakeholders.”

Brady Smith, principal of elite Beacon HS, had a “mask off” moment of his own. “While teachers cannot mandate a mask in their classroom,” he wrote parents, “they may request that students wear one.” 

Teachers did request. And kids (of course) complied. What choice did they have?

We have seen this ugly story play out over and over again during the pandemic: school closures, terror campaigns by teachers around reopening, pointless hygiene theater. 

Lifting the mask mandates should’ve ended this madness. Clearly, it hasn’t.

When you give a veto over common-sense policies to anxious teachers and power-mad administrators like Smith (who blew his stack last March over parent criticism), kids suffer.

Again, the facts: Under-18s face no real risk from COVID. Fewer than 900 of them have died in the United States in two years of pandemic,out of almost 945,000 deaths overall.And most of those kids had serious comorbidities. 

Nor do the data show mask mandates stopping intra-school transmission, thus protecting teachers. Like social distancing, it once seemed a good idea, but experience proved otherwise.  

Regarding our real weapon against COVID — vaccines — Beacon’s kids are overwhelmingly jabbed; about 90% have had both their shots. 

Worse, under New York’s rules, any school in the state is free to follow Beacon. The city Department of Education says, “The decision to wear or not wear a face covering is now entirely up to students, parents and staff,” yet it’s clear students and parents have no say unless they want to go to war with the staff. 

Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul need to make their policy clear: Masking in New York schools is purely voluntary, and teachers or administrators who try to bully kids into keeping theirs on will face real consequences.