Prairie State Wire

 Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy likes what he sees with the state’s new direction on the COVID-19 front.

“Folks, freedom, science, and parental rights are making a comeback in Illinois,” Tracy said in his weekly newsletter. “As you are aware, a Sangamon County judge issued late last week a TRO that suspended the Governor’s mask mandate for the nearly 200 school districts who were a part of that suit. The Governor, working with Attorney General Kwame Raoul, filed an appeal and overnight, the appeals court handed down their ruling. Most of the remaining school districts announced they were awaiting word from the appeals court before they went along with the TRO and made masks optional.”

With the governor wasting little time in filing an appeal to the ruling, Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich) is already blasting the administration for trying to subvert the courts in order to maintain his policy by issuing a new mask mandate through the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).

"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," McConchie 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.”

By a vote of 9-0-2, Joint Commission on Administrative Rules (JCAR) members refused to back his last emergency rule attempt filed by the IDPH.

All across the state, protests have broken out as parents demand an end to the mask mandates that have persisted for more than two years.  

"Enough is enough,” McConchie added. “Let’s start governing this state through the rightful democratic process, not under one man’s rule and ego."

Since Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow’s ruling, roughly half of the state’s more than a thousand school districts have become mask-optional grounds.

While the debate over the effectiveness of masks has raged, including two University of Illinois at Chicago professors recently penning a Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy commentary arguing that "cloth masks and face coverings are likely to have limited impact on lowering COVID-19 transmission because they have minimal ability to prevent the emission of small particles,” critics of have been quick to argue the negative impact the practice has on children can’t be disputed.

According to Pew Charitable Trust, since the pandemic hit, emergency room visits among students for suspected suicide attempts have climbed by 31% and children’s mental health has been designated a “national emergency” by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children's Hospital Association.

Grischow’s order establishes the Illinois Department of Public Health as the “supreme authority” in matters of quarantine and isolation, not the governor. She added IDPH is required to follow state law as it relates to due process standards requirements guaranteed by state law. The governor recently announced plans to life the state’s general mask mandate by the end of the month, but has been noncommittal about schools.

Since Grischow’s ruling, over 550 Illinois school districts have gone “fully masks optional” as litigation on the issue remains outstanding.

“The arbitrary method as to contact tracing and masking in general continue to raise fair questions as to the legality of the Executive Orders in light of violations of healthy children’s substantive due process rights,” Grischow wrote. “Statutory rights have attempted to be bypassed through the issuance of Executive Orders and Emergency Rules … This type of evil is exactly what the law was intended to constrain.”

Grischow has already denied motions in separate cases for there to be class status, meaning the TRO stands to only impact the plaintiffs and the school districts that are part of the lawsuit.

Grischow has also ordered Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez to appear before the court to face a contempt of court complaint.

"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 04, 2022," Grischow’s Feb. 14 order reads.

As part of his legal strategy, attorney Tom DeVore, who has filed suit on behalf of parents against at least 145 school districts, has openly threatened to sue CPS for not obeying a restraining order preventing the district from treating students who unmask differently from those who continue to mask.

The country’s third-largest district with more than 347,000 students, CPS was one of 145 defendant school districts sued by parents seeking to end masking.

On the day court following the Sangamon County court ruling, video captured Hinsdale Central High School officials isolating students who refuse to wear masks in the school auditorium. Parents and students told The DuPage Policy Journal the push has been occurring all day, with the scene being one playing out across much of the state as more mask-weary students made the decision to attend classes without masks.

DeVore has vowed to start pursuing criminal complaints for contempt of court against school officials who abuse the rights of plaintiffs in the suit.

“If I can confirm that the Hinsdale School District or any school district is isolating children that are plaintiffs in this case, and I know that to be true, I'm going to ask the judge, 'Put somebody in the county jail' as soon as I have the first available opportunity,” DeVore told DuPage Policy Journal. “That's what I'm going to try to do because they cannot do that.”