William Spruance was a law student at Georgetown University in August 2021. As the school began to reopen after its initial lockdowns, Spruance asked administrators about their stringent COVID policies. He says he had been marked as non-compliance by an anonymous hotline system for letting his mask dip below his nose and requested to go back to remote learning. "The mandates and the restrictions had taken away all the benefits of in-person learning while imposing pretty severe costs," said Spruance.