ILLINOIS, USA — School districts across Illinois now have a decision to make. Will they continue to enforce Gov. J.B. Pritzker's mask mandate?
Several districts announced this weekend they will be switching to mask optional starting Monday, Feb. 7.
It comes after Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow issued a temporary restraining order last week that blocked 145 school districts from enforcing mask requirements, quarantine, COVID-19 vaccination mandates and testing rules.
Over 700 parents filed a lawsuit in October against these 145 districts, including Rockridge School District; Illinois State Board of Education, the state's health director and Gov. Pritzker.
Rockridge Superintendent Perry Miller announced Sunday, Feb. 6 the district plans to comply with the judge's order "as long as it is in effect" and will drop its mask mandate, effective immediately.
"The State has appealed this ruling to the Appellate Court, and it is possible this ruling may be vacated or altered," Miller said in his letter to parents. "We will provide further updates if and when they are available."
Tom DeVore is the lawyer representing the parents in the lawsuit. He said the judge's order is a weight off of their shoulders.
"They're crying profusely because they're so emotionally overwhelmed," DeVore said. "Children sending me pictures, with their parents permission, of throwing their masks away and how happy they are, children bawling their eyes out because of the stress that they've been put under by the Pritzker administration."
The temporary restraining order technically only applies to the districts named in the lawsuit, but a footnote on the second to last page of the order suggests it has broader implications.
"...This court has declared IDPH and ISBE's Emergency Rules void," Judge Grischow said in his decision. "Thus, non-named plaintiffs and school districts throughout this state may govern themselves accordingly."
AlWood, Sterling and Dixon school districts announced over the weekend they will be mask optional beginning Monday. The districts said all other current COVID-19 mitigation protocols will remain in effect, including quarantine requirements for students and staff who test positive for COVID-19.
"These school districts were scared and intimidated," DeVore said. "A huge majority of them didn't want these mask mandates, but they were threatened by the governor, that he would do all of these bad things to them if they didn't comply … They're starting to learn that the narrative that the governor has been giving to them for all of these months is not necessarily how the court sees it."
Ali McCaw and PJ Mikaele have a first and a third grader in the AlWood district. They said they were surprised but happy about the district's decision.
"It's been a long, two years, and I think our school district has handled it perfectly this entire time," McCaw said. "I told the kids and they were ecstatic. They said they couldn't wait to see their friends' faces and their teachers'."
"We're definitely not anti-maskers by any means," Mikaele added. "But we like the ability to have that choice and to decide what's best for our own children. And that's important, and that's part of being American."
The Rock Island-Milan and ROWVA school districts announced they will still be requiring masks because they were not one of the districts named in the lawsuit.
Pritzker said late Friday, following Grischow's order, he is seeking an expedited appeal. That paperwork was filed Sunday evening, according to DeVore.
“The grave consequence of this misguided decision is that schools in these districts no longer have sufficient tools to keep students and staff safe while COVID-19 continues to threaten our communities – and this may force schools to go remote,” Pritkzer said in a statement. “This shows yet again that the mask mandate and school exclusion protocols are essential tools to keep schools open and everyone safe. As we have from the beginning of the pandemic, the administration will keep working to ensure every Illinoisan has the tools needed to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.”