Court ruling means some southwest Illinois students can attend school without a mask
Editor’s note: This story has been updated Saturday night to show how Highland, Red Bud and Waterloo school districts are reacting to the court decision. Also, please see an accompanying article on bnd.com about these three districts.
Come Monday, nearly 170 Illinois school districts, including several in the metro-east, will have to contend with a temporary restraining order limiting their ability to require masks, quarantines, and staff vaccinations or testing.
Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Raylene Grischow issued the temporary restraining order on Friday afternoon.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker made executive orders in the fall requiring universal masking in schools and requiring school employees, including teachers, to either be vaccinated against COVID, or be tested weekly. The temporary restraining order allows plaintiffs to either attend school without a mask or go to work without the vaccine or testing.
Pritzker, who is named as a defendant along with other state health and education administrators, asked the Illinois Attorney General’s office for an immediate appeal, and the attorney general is seeking an expedited appeal from the Fourth District Illinois Appellate Court, according to a news release.
Earlier on Friday, Grischow denied class certification in those cases. Plaintiffs seek class certification in cases where they want others not named in the filing, but in a similar position, to access the same cause of action. So while Grischow granted the temporary restraining order, the order will only apply to school staff and students who were part of the original filing, not other staff and students.
Greenville attorney Thomas DeVore filed several lawsuits on behalf of parents and school employees from around the state related to the COVID mitigations. Those lawsuits were consolidated in Sangamon County to be heard by Grischow.
“If the Legislature was of the opinion that the public health laws as written were not satisfactory to protect public health from COVID, it has had adequate opportunity to change the law since March 2020,” wrote Grischow in her ruling.
For the class certification, Grischow noted that in the case of the school employees about the requirement to either get the COVID vaccine or submit to weekly testing, certifying the class wasn’t appropriate because “there is a possibility of relief that could be potentially antagonistic to non-represented class members.”
In the student case over mask mandates and quarantine or exclusion policies for students deemed a close contact, Grischow noted that the potential class is too large to add additional members to this case.
The plaintiffs were given the option to refile for class certification in the future, pending more evidence.
Pritzker and the two largest teachers unions in the state all denounced Grischow’s ruling Friday night.
“The grave consequence of this misguided decision is that schools in these districts no longer have sufficient tools to keep students and staff safe while COVID-19 continues to threaten our communities – and this may force schools to go remote,” Pritzker said in a statement.
Illinois is one of 15 states, including Washington D.C., to require masks in schools, and the only Midwestern state to do so.
Illinois Education Association President Kathi Griffin and Illinois Federation of Teachers President Dan Montgomery both warned in their statements that the temporary restraining order could threaten schools’ ability to continue in-person learning.
Eleven metro-east school districts are named in one or both cases, including: Collinsville School District 10, Highland School District 5, Waterloo School District 5, Bond County School District 2, Edwardsville School District 7, Triad School District 2, Wesclin School District 3, Columbia School District 4, Mascoutah School District 19, Red Bud School District 132, and Carlyle School District 1.
As of Saturday, leaders in three area districts, Highland, Red Bud and Waterloo had indicated they would not enforce the mask mandate on Monday.
In anticipation of the ruling, Edwardsville 7 had given notice for five special school board meetings over the last week, canceling each one the day prior after the court closed at 4:30 p.m. without any orders. Each had an agenda focused on discussing temporary restraining order, if they’re granted.
The district had a meeting scheduled for Saturday, but it was canceled after Grischow declined to certify the class. She later issued the temporary restraining order.
This story was originally published February 5, 2022 at 10:37 AM.