Highland schools in southwestern Illinois await judge’s decision on mask mandate

Highland school leaders are preparing to deal with the impact of a pending ruling from a Sangamon County judge, whichever way it goes.

Highland is one of 145 school districts sued by Bond County attorney Thomas DeVore to challenge the state mandate staff and students must be masked in schools. If successful, schools could be forbidden from requiring masks, currently required by statewide mandate. DeVore has also filed suit against vaccine mandates, which only impacts staff.

After days of hearings, Judge Raylene Grischow indicated she would issue a ruling no sooner than Friday, Jan. 28, on DeVore’s request for a temporary restraining order requiring schools to stop mandating masks, and to certify a class action lawsuit. At press time, she had not issued her ruling.

Highland Superintendent Mike Sutton said in his weekly message to parents the issue will “continue to be the primary topic” until a decision is made, and whatever decision is made by the courts is likely to be appealed.

But Highland teachers have concerns.

“Last year at this time, we were looking at vaccines on the horizon and thought COVID would be a thing of the past,” said Danette Daiber, president of the Highland Education Association. “This year there is desperation.”

Daiber said the union had polled its members and of 111 respondents, 50% said they would not feel safe teaching in person if masks were optional.

“I don’t know if that means they would not show up for work,” Daiber said.

However, Daiber said Highland schools “need to be prepared” with other mitigation practices in place, such as better spacing and quarantine times, especially if people will be returning to the schools without masks.

“We don’t have a crystal ball and we don’t know what the litigation will be, but if we put together a plan and let our members know what will be expected, what the limits and boundaries will be so they can feel safe at school, it would be appreciated,” Daiber said.

Daiber said at her building, they average 20 staff members absent per day, with the rest of the staff straining to cover. Sutton said district-wide, they have about 80 absences a day.

“We’re all happy to pull together as a team to keep our kids in school, but we can only do so much for so long,” Daiber said.

One thing all sides seem to agree on: Trying to keep kids in school as much as possible. Daiber began her statements by thanking the school board for trying to keep kids in school; Sutton said it’s the district’s priority.

However, when the decision comes down from the judge, Sutton said they may need to declare the equivalent of a snow day for the staff and teachers to plan and coordinate how to implement it.

“I will give as much notice as possible if this becomes the case,” he said.

Results of poll

Of the poll respondents, Daiber said 19% are thinking of leaving education.

“I’m not sure what we can do” about that, she said, but more collaboration and respect for educators would help.

Sutton first pointed out there are more than 200 teachers and staff members, so a number of people did not participate in the poll. However, he said the board is leaning toward the “most restrictive option” in regards to requiring masking, and they will abide by whatever the court decides.

“We’ve always said we wanted local control, to make our decisions based on the data we collect here locally rather than statewide or nationwide,” Sutton said. “I don’t want to see anyone lose their job ... I don’t want to see anyone come to school and get sick.”

Highland COVID statistics

As far as the local statistics go, Sutton reported eight staff members and 49 students have tested positive in the last week, with another 41 people in quarantine. Last week, 55 students and one staff member tested positive, with 13 quarantined. Of those, 26 students were at Highland High School. Madison County’s positivity rate has hovered about 18-20% all week.

In other local districts, parents are going the other way: Demanding remote learning options for students. East St. Louis District 189 has put in-person classes on an “adaptive pause” since Jan. 4 with parents requesting more remote options, and schools in O’Fallon, Cahokia, Granite City and Belleville have intermittently gone to remote learning as the omicron variant has spread in the metro-east.

This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 12:57 PM.