Dupage Policy Journal

Hinsdale Middle School parent Chris Marnell is supporting his son, a seventh grader who received detention for disobeying COVID protocol.

The crime? Sitting with friends and neighbors at a sparsely attended middle school basketball game.

“I think we're all starting to believe that some of these arbitrary rules that they put in place make zero sense whatsoever,” Marnell told DuPage Policy Journal.

Marnell said the punishment being meted out for questionable COVID protocols nearly two years after the pandemic began, such as that for which his son was punished, are not based on logic but control.

To Marnell, the school should be happy his son wanted to go watch his classmates play sports and cheer them on.

“If they're able to be in school all day long around their peers, why couldn't, say 50 of them, go see a basketball game? It just doesn't make any sense,” he said.

Marnell’s son’s defiance was an act of community.

“My son decided that he wanted to go watch his friends play and you know, we sat with family, friends that have been on the team and when he was asked to leave, he decided that was something he didn't want to do and he stayed,” he said.

Marnell said in most cases he would side with the school, but in this case, the disruption in his son’s life is puzzling.

“You know what, if you're willing to root on your friends in a basketball game and take the punishment, then I'm all for it, then I appreciate that,” he said.

The protocol is not applied to local high schools that Marnell said regularly allow over 1,000 attendees.

Marnell said he understands COVID is a hot-button issue and that many parents are supportive of protocols, but stresses the rules placed on children in public schools should at least be based on logic and make a difference.

“This is absolutely ridiculous. Kids should be able to cheer their fellow classmates on like, enough's enough. These kids have been through too much. Let them be kids and let's move on. Let's figure this out in the same manner and stop with the unnecessary rules that really don’t help,” he said.

While Marnell said he understands the importance of rules in the school setting, those that resulted in his son getting a detention just don’t pass the smell test.

“My son's  a good kid, he doesn't get in trouble,” he said. “So if we thought it was something  maybe he shouldn't have done or don't agree with it….but in this particular case, we completely backed him up and agreed with them,” he said.

Marnell said his son is not agitating against COVID protocols, but that the specific protocols are getting in the way of the community and do not have a defined purpose or a clear end goal.

“He wasn't there trying to start a cause,” he said. “He didn't walk in there without a mask or when he was told or if he was told to put a mask on. No. You know, that's not what his purpose was. His purpose was clearly just to sit there and watch his buddies play basketball with family, friends.”

Marnell said that perhaps the most devastating part of the way schools have handled COVID is the instant judgment on kids who are non-compliant.

He said he commends his son for standing up in the face of unreasonable treatment by the authorities.

“You're not doing anything to undermine somebody or in a in a cruel manner, then you’ve got stick up for yourself,” he said.

Hinsdale Middle School serves over 700 children. It is part of Community Consolidated School District 181.