Dupage Policy Journal

Glenbard District 87 Superintendent David Larson is preparing the school community in the anticipation of plaintiffs winning a temporary retraining order to stop mask and vaccine mandates.

Larson’s comments come in the wake of a court hearing in Sangamon County last week in which mandatory masks and vaccines took center stage. An order is expected to be handed down in that case any day.

“We are anticipating a court ruling within the next week that may result in a temporary restraining order relating to Gov. Pritzker's executive orders that require masks for all students, teachers, staff, and visitors, as well as requiring mandatory vaccinations or COVID-19 testing for school employees,” he said in his regular memo to parents.

That hearing saw 145 school districts and accompanying parents represented by Greenville-based attorney Tom Devore, Commercial-News reported. Devore has gained a reputation for challenging mask and vaccine mandates as well as business closures lobbed down from Springfield by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and backed up by the state’s Democrats.

Pritzker has sought to strip funding and accreditation from schools not in compliance on mask and vaccine mandates. The Biden Administration has also tied federal funding to acquiescence to public health mandates.

But the suit likely won't affect Glenbard 87, according to the superintendent.

“Approximately 140 of Illinois' 840 school districts are named in the lawsuits,” he said. “We anticipate that the ruling will not affect D87 as we were not named in the lawsuits. We will continue to keep you apprised of this situation. Know that the original executive order requiring masks in school and mandatory vaccination or testing for school employees is still in effect for Glenbard schools.”

Larson also encouraged his teachers to "pause our typical grading framework and think differently” earlier this year.

Former Glenbard South history teacher Matthew Janecek quit the school at winter break due to the increasingly hostile environment for civil rights and “blind obedience” to teachers unions.  

Pandemic data paints a dire scenario for the state’s schoolchildren, showing they were negatively impacted.  

Emergency rooms visits due to suspected suicide attempts in schoolchildren increased 31% in 2020, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association declared the national mental health of schoolchildren a “national emergency." 

Late last year, a Lake County football player notably committed suicide after the football season was canceled amid the pandemic.