At a Naperville District 203 school board meeting Monday, Naperville lawyer Dave Nordsieck told parents opposing in-class masks at that they are "wrong and childish," upbraiding them for using "Google law degree analysis" to try and understand a Sangamon County court order as non-lawyers.
"Calling (masks) “illegal” is as wrong as it is unpersuasive," he said. "As someone with an actual law degree, let me say that your Google law degree analysis is not helpful!"
Nordsieck, 36, is is assistant general counsel at CCC Intelligent Solutions. He previously worked as an associate at the law firm of Ropes & Gray LLP.
"Demonizing your fellow (pro-mask citizens is counterproductive, wrong and childish," he said. "When people invoke ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty,’ call masks ‘child abuse’ etcetera, everyone else just tunes you out! Please! Enough with the hyperbolic rhetoric!"
Another attorney addressing the board, Michael Rutcosky, 45, disagreed with Nordsieck's legal analysis.
"The district's decision to ignore a court order places teachers, principals, bus drivers and all employees for that matter in a position where they are potentially breaking the law," he said. "It doesn't matter if our children are not named specifically as plaintiffs in this lawsuit. The school district is a named defendant, and the restraining order protects our children against illegal conduct as a whole."
"In my line of work, I must follow court orders. There's no wiggle room for this. And its' not up to interpretation.
"I was hopeful that the uniformed Naperville police officers at Maplebrook Elementary this morning were there to enforce this court order, but alas, they were not," he said.
Nordsieck said mask opponents should accept that District 203 board president Kristin Fitzgerald and Schools Superintendent Dan Bridges are in charge and don't agree with them.
"That’s life. Get over it," he said. "Personally, I think masks are still the right move for now. I might feel differently in a month or two."
Read Dave Nordsieck's full remarks to the Naperville District 203 School Board
First I want to thank the board and Mr. Bridges for doing their best to fairly and safely navigate an impossible situation.
I’m sure we’ve all seen the comments online and elsewhere. And we will hear many, many more tonight.
Many will have made it personal, and ascribed bad motives to Superintendent Bridges, the rest of the board and their own neighbors. Shame on you.
We all want what is best for the children. We just disagree on what that means.
That’s life. Get over it.
Demonizing your fellow citizens is counterproductive, wrong and childish.
Similarly, we all want this pandemic to be over. No-one wants these restrictions.
Your views are not unique.
When people invoke ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty,’ call masks ‘child abuse’ etcetera, everyone else just tunes you out!
Please! Enough with the hyperbolic rhetoric!
The recent rulings from Sangamon County have generated a lot of confusion.
The judge did not say masks are horrible. They didn’t say a school cannot still require them. So everyone, please stop crying foul and let the legal process unfold!
The judge’s decision did not prohibit individual districts from validly adopting and enforcing their own local policies, which is what District 203 has rightly concluded.
And they’re following their established plan, which as I understand it, was adopted before the Governor’s relevant executive orders.
Calling it “illegal” is as wrong as it is unpersuasive.
As someone with an actual law degree, let me say that your Google law degree analysis is not helpful!
Personally, I think masks are still the right move for now.
I might feel differently in a month or two. Rates will fall and certainly we cannot keep doing this forever.
Personally, I don’t think we’re quite there yet. I understand and sympathize with those of you who do.
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