Despite lawmakers soundly rejecting the Illinois Department of Public Health’s bid to extend its COVID-19 rules for schools this week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday his executive order on masks and other virus protocol still stand and should be followed by Illinois school districts.
Speaking at a news conference in Springfield on Wednesday, Pritzker said the purpose of the health department filing the rule, which was quashed by a bipartisan legislative panel, was to make a “procedural step to simply keep the status quo” while an appellate court reviews a ruling preventing the mask mandate and other COVID-19 measures for schools from being enforced statewide.
“We have to do everything that we can to keep students and teachers safe,” Pritzker said at an event at Lincoln Land Community College, flanked by Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and other government officials. “Doctors say that masks are the best way to preserve in-person learning and keep children and staff safe.”
The appeals court could rule before the end of the week on whether to overturn a Feb. 4 temporary restraining order issued by Sangamon County Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow, who found Pritzker overstepped his authority in issuing the state’s COVID-19 requirements for schools.
Barrington 220 School District is one of the 146 school districts named in a lawsuit filed by hundreds of Illinois parents alleging the governor’s school mask mandate was authorized illegally. Superintendent Robert Hunt said in the wake of lawmakers declining to extend the health department’s school mask mandate, he is recommending the district withdraw its appeal of the judge’s restraining order.
While the case is still being decided by the appellate court, District 220 “will remain in a mask recommended, but not required environment,” a district spokeswoman said Wednesday.
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