Dupage Policy Journal

A downstate attorney who successfully argued for the end of mandatory masking in Illinois public schools will be a featured speaker at a "Concerned Parents Illinois" fundraiser next month.

Tom DeVore of Greenville will deliver a message focusing on the importance of citizen participation.

"The momentum in February 2022 of thousands of people was enough," he said, to reverse a ruling that upheld Covid masking just 18 months earlier.

"The law hadn't changed," he said. "The facts didn't change, and it was the same judge."

It was the power of parents standing up that influenced the justice system, he said.

DeVore said he receives more speaking requests than he can manage but agreed to accept one from Concerned Parents – an organization dedicated to academic excellence and policies supportive of safe learning environments – as an opportunity to reach people that typically aren’t engaged in politics.

He described an awakening among parents everywhere coming to the realization that “the government is actually affecting my life and I don’t like it.”

Ultimately, DeVore said, it’s not enough to just turn out for this upcoming event or others.

“What are you going to do when you leave this building?” he said. “How are you going to make change?”

Kristina McCloy, event organizer and resident of Hinsdale School District 181 and 86, is one such parent who has stood up for change in the aftermath of Covid that exposed radical policy shifts at school.

McCloy, who also serves as Trustee for The Downers Grove Township, established Concerned Parents as a way for parents to have agency with institutions that serve their communities.

Concerned Parents, in essence, is a response to apathy, which McCloy says has infected local community engagement.

“For far too long, parents have abdicated leadership of their local services to people whose names they do not recognize,” she said.

“Those of us in Concerned Parents believe that Hinsdale is a fantastic community that has produced the best and brightest for years because of the vibrant residents who choose to live there.”

At $495 per ticket, the Sept. 6 fundraising event, “All Aboard for the School Board” will be held at London House in Chicago. It will include gourmet dining, a river cruise and speeches from DeVore, as well as fellow concerned parent Aaron Del Mar of School District 211 in Palatine.

Del Mar said his remarks will center on nonsensical policy decisions that have been adopted at many districts, such as biological males competing in girls’ sports and arguably pornographic library books made available to students.

“I will try to show what is happening through a reasonable, intelligent lens,” Del Mar said. “Is it reasonable to have these books so close to pornographic. Is it necessary? Most people have no idea what’s in their kids’ library. We give them the titles and excerpts. I don’t think that’s unfair or unreasonable.”

Del Mar, who also serves as Palatine Township Republican Chairman, said the concerns of parents over what’s going on in school are not partisan.

Whether Democrat or Republican, he said parents are agreeing that some things are “not right.”

“I am not a screamer or a yeller,” he said. “I’m just the guy who says, does this seem right to you?”