Dupage Policy Journal

Indian Prairie School District 204 has made the switch to “masks recommended” after Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s long running school mask mandate was deemed unconstitutional by an appeals court judge. 

School officials noted the change in a Feb. 22 Twitter post. 

Sangamon County Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow set the stage for change earlier this month when she issued a temporary restraining order ending enforcement of the governor’s executive orders mandating masks in schools along with weekly testing of unvaccinated school employees and quarantining of students and teachers who are close contacts of confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases.

In a lengthy ruling where she also established the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) as the “supreme authority” in matters of quarantine and isolation as opposed to the governor, Grischow also stressed IDPH is obligated to follow all state law as it relates to due process requirements.

While the governor is appealing the decision, with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul seeking an expedited review of it, more than 550 school districts across the state have already made the decision to go fully mask-optional.

Not long before the court’s decision became public, Pritzker had announced plans to lift the state’s general mask mandate by month’s end. The governor has been largely noncommittal about plans for the order mandating masks in schools.

Grischow also recently ordered Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Pedro Martinez to appear before the court to answer a contempt of court complaint on CPS’ behalf.

"It is ordered that Mr. Pedro Martinez, as agent for the City of Chicago School District #299, and the Board of Education of City of Chicago School District #299, shall personally appear before this court and show cause as to why the defendants should not be held in contempt for failure to abide by and comply with this Court's prior order of February 4, 2022," Grischow’s Feb. 14 order reads.

CPS was one of 145 defendant school districts sued by parents across the state seeking to end masking. As the cases have made their way through the court system, attorney Tom DeVore has  threatened to hit the country’s third-largest district (347,000 students) with more legal action on the grounds of not obeying a restraining order preventing the district from treating students who unmask differently from those who continue to mask.

Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich) has accused the governor of working to subvert the state’s court system to keep his self-imposed policy in place.

"In his quest for power at all costs, the Governor attempted to go above the judicial system to continue to require masks in schools, a move that even his Democrat allies in the legislature wouldn’t support. Even they agree he has gone too far," he said in a statement. "Today, the Governor was willing to add to the confusion and chaos that has overwhelmed our schools and parents in the last several days.”

Quarantining young people has been linked to increases in depression, with emergency room visits among students for suspected suicide attempts having jumped by 31 percent since the start of the pandemic and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association having declared children's mental health a "national emergency."