Students from Barrington High School leave school for the day on Jan. 31, 2022. District 220 is one of 146 Illinois school districts named in a lawsuit targeting Gov J.B. Pritzker’s mitigation protocols at schools. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
As Illinois parents and educators await a Springfield judge’s ruling that could roll back Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s COVID-19 school mask mandate, some suburban school districts are demanding the state deliver an “off ramp” from nearly two years of required virus mitigations.
The school districts’ requests for transition guidance from the state is emerging this week as 146 school districts, including Chicago Public Schools, prepare for the impact of a pending decision by Sangamon County Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow, who is expected to rule soon on a request to temporarily halt the governor’s executive orders on masking and quarantining for schools.
Grischow is considering a lawsuit from about 700 parents who allege the state’s virus mitigation rules for schools, including masking and exclusion from class for students who were exposed to the virus and their close contacts, deprives students of due process.
But the litigation is lingering alongside plummeting COVID-19 rates in recent weeks, prompting some suburban school district leaders and parents to ask Pritzker, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the state’s board of education to provide guidance on how to eventually transition away from virus protocol, including masking, social distancing and exclusion from school.
Barrington resident Marsha McClary, a mother of five who has four children enrolled in District 220, said given the recent decline in virus rates, it was “responsible” of the school board to prepare for an eventual halting of COVID-19 school mitigations.
McClary is among the contingent of parents who believe when it comes to students, “the masks are causing more harm than good.”
“My daughter tells me she can’t hear the teacher. … They can’t see the expressions on the faces of their teachers and friends, to know if they are happy or upset, and to gauge their reactions,” McClary said.
“I think the vast majority of those who want to see an end to masking are not anti-mask, but we want to make decisions for our own families,” she said.
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