Reflecting on his return to the lecture hall after years of musical success, Guru admitted that transitioning back into student life hit him harder than expected.

Despite his fame, wealth and accomplishments, he said sitting in a classroom full of teenagers and Gen Z students made him extremely self-conscious.

Though he had the option of mature or online classes, he deliberately chose regular lectures because he wanted the authentic student experience, even if it meant blending in with much younger peers.

“When I first entered, I was always wearing masks and hoodies. I was too shy. I didn’t even want to pull up in my Challenger because people would think I was showing off, and I hate that,” he said.

He explained that he avoided moving with security or drawing unnecessary attention to himself, choosing instead to walk into class with close friends, yet the uneasiness remained.

Guru recalled students whispering, recording videos of him, and sometimes gossiping behind him, creating an emotionally draining environment.

He said it took his transition from Level 200 to 300 before he finally gained the confidence to drop the mask and fully engage with campus life.

Over time, he adjusted, especially when he decided to contest for the SRC presidency—a move that forced him to face students openly and navigate the spotlight beyond the music stage.

Despite the initial discomfort, Guru says the experience helped him grow, pushing him out of his shell and teaching him resilience in a different kind of public space.

Watch video below:

The region, notable for being dry and dusty, is in a worse state due to the violent nature of the wind in the harmattan season.

The situation is even more dangerous for motorbike riders, as some riders told Adom News’ Illiasu Dabre that the recent crashes in the region are mainly due to the wind and dust which blur their vision.

Consequently, riders, pillions and residents have been forced to adapt the nose mask method for survival.

The nose mask business in the region was not encouraging due to the decline in COVID-19 cases in Ghana.

However, speaking to Adom News, some of the nose mask sellers in Tamale disclosed that the mask business has been boosted again.

Some revealed they sell as many boxes a day at subsidised prices.

Grace Smith returned to Laramie High School in Wyoming on Thursday after serving two consecutive two-day suspensions for not complying with the school’s mask mandate. Anyone inside a district building must have their face covered, the Laramie Boomerang reported.

The high school junior told state Senator Anthony Bouchard in an interview posted to Twitter that police handcuffed her for trespassing. Grace refused to leave school grounds after getting suspended.

The first time she was suspended, she told the Boomerang she ‘just left’. After talking with an attorney with her family, she decided to ‘push it,’ provoking the citation for $500.

Grace, a straight-A student involved in numerous extracurriculars, said she believes the mandate violates her constitutional rights and that she won’t wear a mask.

When she arrived in school on Thursday, she once again was ticketed for trespassing and slapped with another $500 fine. She was surprised when the incident escalated to a school-wide lockdown and her arrest.

“They told me they were going to do that,” she said. “I was surprised they followed through. They came up to me probably 20 minutes before I was arrested and said that if you continue to not leave, we will arrest you.”

According to her father Andy Smith, an earlier conversation with the Laramie Police Department did not foreshadow his daughter getting taken away in handcuffs.

Grace recorded and shared a video of herself being handcuffed, showing a polite interaction between herself and the police officers.

“They told us how this was going to play out before it happened,” Andy said. “They all said they were not going to arrest kids. But she was taken into custody, handcuffed and brought down to the detention center.”

Her arrest caused a ‘brief lockdown’, the school said in a statement, and was brought on to “prevent further interruptions to academic learning.”

The school district approved the mask mandate on September 8, making it mandatory for most students to wear masks in all buildings and on buses.

To consider lifting the mandate, Albany County will need to enter the Covid ‘Yellow Zone’ for three weeks, which would indicate moderate transmission, but as of Monday the county is currently in the ‘Red Zone’, indicating high transmission levels.

Vaccination rates would also need to hit at least 70% for officials to consider reversing the mandate. The rate for Albany County currently sits at 49%.

School officials will meet on Wednesday to revisit the plan.

The district would also not provide a comment on how many other students have faced suspension for not wearing masks, saying that they don’t ‘comment on student discipline matters’.

While the lockdown was put into effect to prevent any interruptions, Grace says she left the building without causing any sort of disturbance.

She has reportedly been bullied by people she once considered her friends.

“I get cussed out a lot,” she said. “People have called me mean names. Nobody has physically harmed me, but some of my best friends now won’t talk to me.”

Still she is sticking to her beliefs.

“I’m growing up in a country where I’m supposed to have my God-given rights to protect, and they’re being taken away,’ she said. ‘Everybody has the freedom to wear a mask if they choose, but I believe everybody also has the right to not wear a mask if they choose.”

The teen told her state senator that the whole experience has made her feel “unwanted by the school system.”

This was when he was allegedly slapped by a Police officer for asking the latter why he was not wearing a face mask.

The police officer was said to have been on patrol duty with his colleagues enforcing COVID-19 protocols which include the wearing of a face mask.

The victim (name withheld) in an interview with Kasapa FM said his motivation for questioning the policeman was to get him to lead by example by wearing a face mask.

He said immediately he asked the police officer for his face mask, the latter slapped him three times causing him to lose his wedding ring which fell down in the process.

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According to the journalist, the incident drew a large crowd to the scene to separate the two.

He narrated that the police officer still burning with anger followed up and stormed the front desk of his office and continued the assault.

Meanwhile, the matter has been reported to the Mankessim Police Command for investigations.

The Divisional Police Commander, ASP Danso Abeam, was surprised that nurses and other health workers, as well as teachers, were among people arrested for not adhering to the safety protocol.

According to him, “if health workers who are mandated to handle people who have tested positive for the virus are not adhering to the safety protocols then it means the country has a difficult task dealing with the spread of the virus.”

He stated that police have taken the caution statements of the 75 culprits after which they were granted bail.

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The culprits are to report on Tuesday, 26th January 2021 as the command awaits further directives from the Regional Police Command.

He advised residents of Goaso and its environs to adhere to the wearing of nose masks because the police won’t spare any person arrested.

The suspects were picked up during a special operation ‘Wear your nose mask’ raid in major centres in Accra.

The four-hour operation was carried out around Tudu, CMB, Farisco, Railways and its environs.

The suspects were persons either having no mask, or had it and yet failed to put it on.

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Their arrest comes at the back of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s order to the Inspector General of Police to deploy officers to enforce the directive on compulsory mask-wearing in public places.

This has become necessary following the spike in Ghana’s cases, and the President’s announcement that a new strain of the virus has been detected in Ghana.

The nose mask was sold in a plastic package so there was no way she could have known what was inside until she opened it.

When she did, she found a nose mask layered with a panty liner.

Sharing the photo, she wrote:

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“See the nose mask they sold for #400, they said because it is filtered. please is this nose mask or pant liner.”

The latest to put Nigerians in awe was moments when horses in Oslo, Lagos state were captured roaming the streets of Nigeria with face mask on.

The masks have been sewn to cover the entire nose and mouth of the horses as the owners who rode on wore similar ones.

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Some passersby, who witnessed the odd scene, stood momentarily to allow the ‘super’ horses march pass.

In a video going viral on social media, a woman can be seen buying foodstuff at an undisclosed market wearing a bottle on her head as a guard against coronavirus.

To the surprise of many, she decided to go for her own custom-made bottle, which covered her face perfectly – with the lid of the bottle left open to allow easy breathing.

Many applauded her as she moved on unperturbed by the attention she was garnering by the minute.

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One thing that couldn’t go unnoticed was her hand gloves and the long dress reaching her feet.

Watch the video above: