Dupage Policy Journal

Naperville Community Unit School District 203 is going mask-optional as of Friday, Feb. 18.

"At the meeting, I will recommend that starting on Friday, February 18, wearing a mask will be respectfully requested, but no longer be required," Superintendent Dan Bridges said in an email to the district.

The meeting in question is a special board meeting called by Bridges and the school board to address the growing parent movement against masks.

"We will continue to expect everyone in the district will be respectful of one another and the choice they make," Bridges wrote.

The school district will still require masks on buses per the federal mandate.

The 203 school board members instituted the current mandate in the fall on top of the state mandate. 


School Board President Kristin Fitzgerald struggled to maintain order in a crowded school board meeting last week.

That meeting featured a series of angry, distraught and fatigued parents and children, the majority of whom spoke against the school district for the continued mask mandate despite an downstate judge noting the practice’s unconstitutionality.

The school board met on Sunday at 10 a.m. for an emergency meeting to discuss litigation. 

A handful of parents at last week’s meeting said they would be suing the school district to revoke its bond certificate.

One parent who is an attorney said last week that the legal opinion clearly provided some protection to all children against mandates.

"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," attorney Michael Rutcosky 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."

Bridges has also been the focus of criticism given his support for Critical Race Theory.