No masks required for students in Highland School District starting this week
Students will no longer be required to wear masks in Highland schools beginning this week, after a judge issued a temporary restraining order in a pending lawsuit.
Highland is one of 145 school districts sued by Bond County attorney Thomas DeVore challenging the state mandate that staff and students should be masked in schools. On Friday, Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Raylene Grischow issued a temporary restraining order that allows the plaintiffs to attend school without masks.
Highland Superintendent Mike Sutton confirmed they are interpreting the order to mean the district will not enforce the mask requirement for anyone, and will not identify close contacts to COVID-positive staff or students for the purposes of quarantine.
“Masks will be encouraged, but not required,” Sutton wrote in a message on Saturday.
At a school board meeting in January, Highland school board members had confirmed to Sutton they prefer the “least restrictive environment,” as they awaited the judge’s order.
Originally Sutton indicated the district might need a teacher’s institute day to create and implement new policy, but the judge’s ruling came in the middle of multiple snow days, giving them the weekend to sort it out.
“We will be in school on Monday and we will not be enforcing the mask requirement,” Sutton said over the weekend.
On Sunday, Sutton clarified masks will still be required on school buses per federal requirements, and the district would continue to follow guidelines from the Illinois Department of Public Health for people testing positive for COVID. At the moment, those requirements state that a person who tests positive must stay home for at least six days, then may return if symptoms are improving, but must be masked until day 11. That requirement also will not apply to the people named in the lawsuit, Sutton said.
“All districts named in the lawsuit are grappling with very difficult decisions and face liability regardless of the continued path forward,” Sutton wrote in his Sunday letter to parents. “We will likely see complaints of contempt of court or additional adverse action depending on decisions we make.”
Sutton said he spent Saturday meeting with representatives from Highland’s teachers’ union and with district administrators. Last month, Danette Daiber, president of the Highland Education Association, told the school board 50% of the members polled said they would not feel safe teaching in person if masks were optional.
Daiber said at the time Highland High School was averaging 20 staff members absent every day — approximately 80 per day district-wide. She asked that the district address other mitigation practices to prevent COVID from spreading, such as better spacing.
Sutton said the district could not provide remote options due to staffing.
“Shortening the school day at middle school and high school was the only way we could offer remote learning last year,” he wrote. “Even then, our teachers and staff made an impossible situation for, but we could not sustain the same effort into the future. Unfortunately, we are in the midst of creating a new norm during the COVID era.”
Daiber could not be immediately reached for further comment.
Around the metro-east
Other districts are interpreting the temporary restraining order to apply only to the actual plaintiffs and will continue requiring masks for all other students.
Edwardsville District 7 and Collinsville Unit 10 issued statements Sunday declaring students who were not specifically named in the lawsuit will still be required to wear masks while the restraining order is appealed, as will staff members. Others, such as Triad District 2, are applying the restraining order to all students, as is Highland.
This story was originally published February 7, 2022 at 9:08 AM.