On Friday, the Illinois Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Gov. J.B. Pritzker on a lower court’s ruling that he had exceeded his authority to impose a mandate for school children to wear masks.
The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case means that, for all intents and purposes, the mandate to wear masks in Illinois schools is no more.
That is, except in the city of Chicago.
The Chicago Teachers’ Union has a separate, binding agreement with the city that forces kids to mask up. The teachers have already come close to walking out on the issue, so it’s not likely the city will want to poke the bear and try to end the mask mandate to bring Chicago schools in line with the rest of the country.
In a statement, Gov. JB Pritzker said: “I’m gratified that the Supreme Court vacated the lower court’s restraining order, meaning that if a school mask mandate needs to go into effect in the future, we continue to have that authority. I’m also extremely pleased to say that because the CDC has recommended that masks are needed only in areas of high transmission, the State of Illinois will move forward to remove our school mask mandate, effective Monday. We will recommend that all school districts follow CDC guidance and will update our existing guidance in the coming days.”
In fact, the court did not mention whether the mandate could be brought back in the future. But Pritzker, who had been not only fighting the courts but public opinion as well, had to find a way to take some of the sting out of his defeat.
Meanwhile, the teachers are talking vaguely about making masks optional “by the end of the year.”
Schools chief Pedro Martinez said he’s open to the idea of lifting the district’s mask mandate at some point but cautioned against impulsive decisions.
“I do predict there’ll be a day we can go mask optional,” Martinez told the Board of Education at its meeting Wednesday in the Loop. “And I would love that to happen before the end of the school year.
Martinez has received his marching orders from the union and is letting the board know that the masks will stay until the teachers say otherwise.
“Right now though, I feel like in a movie that keeps rewinding because one month it’s, ‘Everybody should be remote, nobody should be in school, it’s too dangerous.’ The next month it’s, ‘Nobody should have masks, they’re terrible, they’re hurting our children.’”
The school board unanimously approved a resolution that etched in stone the district’s pandemic protections over the past two years and reaffirmed Martinez’s power to respond to safety needs as necessary. Despite suggestions from critics, the measure did not cede the board’s authority to approve or deny future policies.
The CDC has ended its guidance for universal masking, recommending instead that local conditions govern mask usage. And if they have any more ideas that were recommended by others a year or two ago, we’ll be sure to pass them along to you.
