Dupage Policy Journal

DuPage County resident Josh McBroom and others are calling out DuPage County Chairman Dan Cronin for a controversial proclamation he and others presented to DuPage County Health Department Executive Director Karen Ayala.

The proclamation thanked Ayala “for her efforts to assist schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

McBroom said before patting each other on the back, local officials like Ayala should apologize for the effect heavy-handed lockdowns had on the lives of county residents like himself.

“In an environment where most reasonable people have finally acknowledged the unnecessary  harms children were subjected to by heavy handed public health policies, DuPage County Board leadership is giving awards for this behavior. It’s an astonishing lack of self awareness,” McBroom told DuPage Policy Journal.

The DuPage County Board posted about the proclamation on Facebook.

“Chairman Dan Cronin, Regional Superintendent of Schools Darlene Ruscitti, Board of Health President Sam Tornatore and local school superintendents presented a proclamation to DuPage County Health Department Executive Director Karen Ayala for her efforts to assist schools during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Board said.

The proclamation attracted negative commentary for Ayala in response.

“The proclamation that these people should be signing is an APOLOGY to every parent and child for what was illegally done to them by these officials. Every one of them was complicit!” Casie Pezzarossi said.

Polly Clutts Ascher registered her feelings on the topic.

“I am so disappointed by this. Karen Ayala was responsible for keeping thousands of healthy kids away from school for over a year. She deserves no recognition for this travesty,” she said.  

Kristi Jonikas Dillman said she felt the actions of local politicians were criminal.

“You should all be in jail for what you did to our children,” she said.

Kimberly Ann excoriated parents for ceding their rights to the officials.

“So glad so many parents stood up to these power hungry officials who damaged our kids for far too long under the guise of ‘safety.’ They did nothing but harm the youngest who needed our help the most,” she said.

The county lost “substantial revenue” due to COVID-19 protocols shutting down larges parts of society including small businesses and schools, Choose DuPage reported.

In February, after a judge had declared universal masking an “evil” and struck the practice down, local schools continued the practice, punishing students who removed masks, according to DuPage Policy Journal.

At the time Glenbard West Dean Peter Baker admonished would-be protestors exercising constitutional rights to not be masked, the Journal reported.

Dr. Bill Hauter, a Peoria physician set to become the only doctor in the General Assembly barring an unlikely challenge this fall, said masking in schools has had a negative effect on students and was not sound public health policy.

“You're asking them to undertake a public health measure in extremely low risk populations. That is not effective. It's not done universally. And the last thing is, when you do this in a low risk population, you say, does it have any side effects because it better not have any side effects in a low-risk population,” Hauter told the Peoria Standard.

“So we found out quickly that there were side effects. The side effects were that there was isolation. There were changes in personality. There were learning delays. Kids should not have something on their face around each other. It's just not how humans live. That's not how we are. We're interactive, we take cues, we learn verbally and all these things happen. So there was side effects to it. So I just think it was wrong to have masks on kids in school, especially because they're such a low risk population.”