South Cook News

Oak Lawn Community High School District 229 Superintendent Mike Riordan recently sent a letter to parents alerting them that school system officials have voted to institute a mask-optional system.

“Students and staff will return to school on Tuesday, February 22, and for the first time in almost two years they will have the option to wear or not wear a facemask,” Riordan wrote in the letter. “We will honor and respect each individual's decision, and we expect everyone to do the same,” Riordan said.”

In addition to masks now being optional, weekly testing of unvaccinated school employees and quarantining of students and teachers known to have been in proximity to confirmed or probable COVID-19 victims will end.

The changes come after Sangamon County Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow issued a temporary restraining order effectively ending enforcement of the governor’s executive orders related to the virus.  Grischow’s ruling further stipulates state law designates the Illinois Department of Public Health as the “supreme authority” in matters of quarantine and isolation, not the governor. As part of her 30-page ruling, the judge also asserted that IDPH must adhere to state law in making sure due process standards are upheld.

Even as Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently announced he plans to lift the general statewide indoor mask mandate by month’s end, he has been noncommittal about the one impacting schools. While the governor has vowed to appeal the verdict, since the ruling went into effect more than 550 school districts across the state have made the decision to go mask optional.

Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich) recently said the governor is trying to subvert the state’s courts to maintain his policy standards by issuing a new mask mandate through the IDPH.

Grischow wrote the governor’s approach to dealing with the pandemic has left opponents without the benefit of due process.

“The arbitrary method as to contact tracing and masking in general continue to raise fair questions as to the legality of the Executive Orders in light of violations of healthy children’s substantive due process rights,” she wrote. “Statutory rights have attempted to be bypassed through the issuance of Executive Orders and Emergency Rules … This type of evil is exactly what the law was intended to constrain.”

In separate cases, the judge has denied motions for there to be class status, meaning the TRO would only impact the plaintiffs and the school districts that are part of the suit. In addition, Grischow has ordered Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez to appear before the court to answer a contempt of court complaint on the district’s behalf.

"It is ordered that Mr. Pedro Martinez, as agent for the City of Chicago School District #299, and the Board of Education of City of Chicago School District #299, shall personally appear before this court and show cause as to why the defendants should not be held in contempt for failure to abide by and comply with this Court's prior order of February 04, 2022," Grischow’s Feb. 14 order reads.

CPS was one of 145 defendant school districts sued by parents across the state seeking to end masking. Attorney Tom DeVore has previously threatened to sue CPS for not obeying a restraining order preventing the district from treating students who unmask differently from those who continue to mask.

On the day after Grischow’s ruling, the DuPage Policy Journal has reported Hinsdale Central High school officials were captured on video guiding students who refuse to wear masks into an isolated area of the school. DeVore has vowed to start pursuing criminal complaints for contempt of court against school officials who abuse the rights of plaintiffs that are part of the suit.

“If I can confirm that the Hinsdale School District or any school district is isolating children that are plaintiffs in this case, and I know that to be true, I'm going to ask the judge, 'Put somebody in the county jail' as soon as I have the first available opportunity,” he told DuPage Policy Journal. “That's what I'm going to try to do because they cannot do that.”

A recent Pew Charitable Trust website analysis recently concluded that isolation has taken a toll on students, with the number of emergency room visits among them for suspected suicide attempts jumping by 31% and the Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association now proclaiming children’s mental health a “national emergency” since the start of COVID.