Dupage Policy Journal

Illinois District 181 parents are reporting school administration is defying a judge’s order overturning the mask mandate for plaintiff students in schools.

Most districts in the lawsuit decided to go mask optional while District 181 has opted to allow only those students in the lawsuit to go without masks.

However, Chris Marnell noted his school is not even acknowledging the judge’s order. 

Marnell said his son Ryder, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, came to school Monday morning with the expectation that masks had been done away with — at least until Gov. J.B. Pritzker could prove in court the constitutionality of the mandate.

“They're not abiding by the TRO (temporary restraining order) that was put forward by the judge. And so my student, he went to school today, Ryder, and he chose not to wear a mask, and he was instantly segregated from his classmates and put into a room with other maskless classmates,” Marnelll told DuPage Policy Journal.

He noted the number of students sent to the area has grown throughout the day so much that the students were transferred to the high school auditorium.

“That being said, I've heard, so now it's kind of growing,” Marnell said. “It started with five kids. They were in a classroom. These kids have been moved to an auditorium in the high school. So I think it's growing.

“I think more kids are removing their masks," he continued. "I'm not exactly sure, we're not privy to go to the school and look for ourselves, but that's what I'm hearing from my son.”

At Hinsdale Central High School, video shows hundreds of maskless students milling about.

Attorney Tom DeVore, who was successful in stopping masks from being imposed on plaintiffs in a lawsuit against 145 school districts - including District 181 - said he will pursue criminal charges if the allegations are true.

DeVore noted he is currently seeking confirmation from others in the case.

“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,” DeVore told DuPage Policy Journal. “That's what I'm going to try to do because they cannot do that.”

DeVore said the ruling technically only extends to the children involved in the complaint directly, but that school districts as as whole have decided to go mask optional based on liability concerns.

“If they want to do it to children not named in the complaint, that's not a violation of the court's order,” he said.

DeVore vowed to go after any school officials violating rights of the students in the suit to be mask optional.  

“If they're doing it to the children named in the complaint, it's a contempt of court order, and I'm going to ask as soon as I can get back in front of the judge if somebody said the county jail as long as possible, so they don't keep doing this stuff. That's what I'm going to do,” DeVore said.