Governor J.B. Pritzker is acting like a responsible, intelligent leader. Imagine that! He actually wants to protect the lives and health of the children and adults in school. He won’t permit them to decide whether they can be free to infect others with a deadly disease. He understands that public health takes precedence over private whim.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker took the unusual step Thursday of preemptively filing a lawsuit to ensure school children wear face coverings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus when schools reopen in a few weeks.
The action filed late Thursday in Sangamon County Circuit Court by the state attorney general seeks a judge’s approval of Pritzker’s order that schoolchildren, teachers and staff wear coverings over mouths and noses among other measures to reduce the chance that the highly contagious and potentially deadly virus can spread.
‘As a father, I would not send my children to a school where face coverings are not required because the science is clear: face coverings are critical to prevent the spread of coronavirus,’ Pritzker said in a prepared statement.
It’s typical for the governor to be in court as a defendant seeking validation of a policy or action. In this instance, no lawsuit has been filed, but a public school district and two private academies have informed the Illinois State Board of Education that Pritzker no longer has authority under emergency rule-making to require face masks in schools and that they will be developing their own safety rules.
It was time to get ahead of the issue, Ann Spillane, Pritzker’s chief legal counsel, told The Associated Press.
‘Students need to prepare, parents need to know what’s coming, administrators need guidelines. Confusion on these things leads to risk,’ Spillane said. ‘œWe’re sending a signal that this issue is not up for debate. The governor doesn’t have an option.’
A lawyer representing Hutsonville Community Unit School District No. 1 in southeastern Illinois, Parkview Christian Academy in Yorkville and Families of Faith Christian Academy in Channahon wrote letters in the last month to the state board explaining that the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in a 1922 case that government cannot make rules ‘œwhich merely have a tendency to prevent’ the spread of infectious diseases, particularly if ‘œarbitrary and unreasonable.’
Thomas DeVore of Greenville also noted that Pritzker has said there’s not enforcement for violators of the guidelines, which DeVore contends turns ‘œrules’ into ‘œrecommendations.’ He did not return a message left at his office after hours Thursday.
With the surging spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, Pritzker on March 13 ordered public schools closed – eventually for the rest of the term. Despite a leveling off of cases in Illinois, there are concerns here and, especially in other parts of the nation where case numbers are rising again, about reopening the classic community center, the school, in an age where people are urged to wear face masks, stay 6 feet apart, and step up the hygiene protocol dramatically.
Pritzker in June released of a set of guidelines for safe congregation in schools from kindergarten through college, but among others, the state’s two major teachers’ unions have continued worries about keeping congested classrooms, hallways and playgrounds safe.
With public health officials announcing 25 additional deaths Thursday among 1,257 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, the state has now lost 7,251 lives to virus-related complications. Nearly 160,000 have been infected; tens of thousands of those have recovered.
Dissidents who bristle at government telling them what to wear and how to act in public gained traction last spring when Republican Rep. Darren Bailey of Xenia, represented by DeVore, won an opaque victory in Clay County against Pritzker, arguing that his ability under state law to impose emergency rules ended after 30 days – on April 8.
Despite the fact that it only applies to Bailey, and the ruling precludes further challenge, supporters have taken up the charge. DeVore has notified the government on behalf of individuals, retail establishments, and now schools, that they don’t plan to comply.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What plan does Gov. Pritzker have for lunch time?
BTW, before we praise Pritzker too profusely, let me remind everyone that Pritzker was the one telling us it was safe to vote in person on March 17 after ordering a shutdown starting March 16.
Are there no effective penalties for a “refusal to comply” especially when that refusal is a direct threat to the health and welfare of public?
What I think/hope this does is give power to the parents and teachers who don’t want to be part of a school that allows students or staff to not wear a mask. He filed this lawsuit preemptively because we have a few schools in the state that have already declared that masks will not be required.
So the question now is, if a school district doesn’t enforce the rule, what recourse does a teacher or parent have? Do I have to show up to a classroom if I have a student who refuses to wear a mask and my administrators don’t enforce the rule?
essential question: what plans are in place at each school to protect the teachers and kids from parents and kids who refuse to comply
The reason the CDC did not require masks at first was because they were deemed ineffective. It was not that a surgical mask did not work somewhat and a respirator very well. It is that untrained people outside of the Medical field, 80% of the time defeat the purpose of a mask. They touch their face under the mask or touch the contaminated mask and then touch surfaces. So they deemed it necessary to preserve the supply of surgical and N95 respirators for first res-ponders. Social distancing for the rest. So a mask and social distancing should help somewhat.
A camp in Missouri supposedly took extreme precautions including masks yet 82 came down with the virus .Good luck in a classroom or on a school bus.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-summer-camp-took-extraordinary-covid-19-precautions-it-still-failed/2020/07/14/998e172e-c22a-11ea-b178-bb7b05b94af1_story.html
Wonder how much rubles Putin is paying people in the dump administration and elsewhere to cause havoc in America?
Does Putin write their “lines and lies” too?
What do either Putin or Trump have to do with this? Are you seriously saying you think either one would bother with a couple of private, rural downstate schools in a midwestern state like Illinois? You don’t think this kind of mask resistance can be homegrown? Is Putin the cause of literally everything bad in this country, or is it remotely possible that Americans bring on their own problems?
“You don’t think this kind of mask resistance can be homegrown?”
Trump is “homegrown” and clearly he has been (purely by coincidence I’m sure) exactly in sync with the propaganda that Putin wants pushed.
Trump is the leader of “this virus is no big deal” and “kids must be forced back to school for the good of the economy” and “this virus is a hoax” rhetoric.
Maybe you recall the birther movement. Was that “homegrown”? Did a bunch of people simultaneously decide to all start believing that Obama was born in Kenya at the same time?
(For the record, the Trumpster excuse that Hillary started the birther movement or that she ever pushed it has already been permanently discredited at Snopes, just like Trump’s lie that he should be credited for “ending” it and not promoting it has been discredited by everyone except the far right. The birther movement started as right wing propaganda and at most, some Clinton supporters later privately circulated an e-mail referring to that right wing rumor and clearly didn’t use it because primary voters didn’t even know about it and the first time 99.99% of Democrats ever even heard of the “Obama born in Kenya” rumor was via the right wing and usually via Trump.)
If you asked 100 Trump supporters whether Trump believes Americans should wear a mask, how many would say yes? If you asked 100 Biden supporters whether Biden believes Americans should wear a mask, how many would say yes?
There has been lots of documented propaganda coming out of Russia directed to Americans about the “hoax” of COVID. Because the only people who would spend the resources to push that false propaganda are people who hate America.
The idea that a huge percentage of Trump supporters all got the idea that the virus was a big hoax at the same time is not remotely plausible.
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/07/how-anti-russian-propaganda-works
It’s always incredibly amusing to watch the guy who used rumors and false innuendo to directly attack the character of Elizabeth Warren, suddenly parsing every word of a NYT article in fear that someone could – if they have no reading comprehension and go through the incredible contortions in logic that Nathan Robinson does – think less of Putin. Nathan Robinson certainly knows who the “real” victim is — Putin — and who the “real” evil one is – Elizabeth Warren.
Spare me the hypocrisy of Nathan Robinson, who only gets upset when something he believes is unfair to Putin or Trump is written while he has no concern about media that is unfair to democrats — maybe because that would have to include some of his own articles.
In the link you provide, Nate Robinson is absolutely outraged that the NYT accurately reported about how Russian intelligence has been hacking US/Canada/British medical research data to help them develop their own vaccine. Even though the article makes it clear that this hacking isn’t endangering American lives! What bothers Robinson so much is that the NYT did not praise Putin for caring so much about his people that he is hacking that data to save Russian lives! Putin just wants to help his own people, and that’s the only reason he hacked, and Nate Robinson is extremely upset that the NYT did not include how Putin’s motives were entirely altruistic! Robinson presents a Putin who would steal the vaccine and give it to all of his subjects (oops, I mean “countrymen”) free of charge and not one oligarch would make a penny! It’s all because Putin cares so much about his people’s well-being, says Robinson, and how dare the NYT not make that absolutely clear to its readers.
Robinson doesn’t criticize the Trump administration for attacking other countries, like China, for stealing data, but since the Trump administration won’t ever criticize Putin, I guess they share Nate Robinson’s belief that Putin’s actions are always altruistic. I don’t know why Nate did not defend the altruistic motives of other leaders whenever the Trump Administration talked about the illegal hacking – it’s odd that Nate hasn’t already written many articles expressing his outrage at the Trump administration for criticizing the hacks of countries not led by Putin. But I’m sure it is just a coincidence that Nate decided to take up this issue when the altruistic motives of the one leader Trump worships above all were left out of the NYT story. Do we all agree that Nate has every right to be outraged that the NYT didn’t include Putin’s altruistic motives in their story?
If Robinson has even an ounce of integrity,he will spend the next few months writing articles advocating for the sharing of ALL scientific research on vaccines with ALL countries and letting them all hack as much as they want. Robinson would be writing an article tomorrow demanding the Putin allow American, Canadian and British intelligence free reign to hack into their scientific institutions.
If Robinson does not DEMAND that Russian scientists allow US intelligence to hack all of their scientific data, then he is the real hack.
Robinson plays victim when he claims that people are accusing him of being Putin’s stooge so he can prove it by demanding the Putin allow those countries to hack Russian data. Will he? Or will he only demand that Putin has access to everyone else’s data?
Because apparently, only Putin has altruistic motives and only cares about his people.
Wishing he would order a shorter day, air filters and industrial fans. IMO those would do the same, more, to help. Masks are cheap.
Masks are especially cheap if there’s no funding to provide them for schools and you just expect families to provide their own or teachers to provide them for students.
Maybe unions should file similar lawsuits in other states on behalf of their membership. If we are sending teachers into the unknown, we should be ensure that some level of safety measures should be taken. Mask wearing should be an obvious demand. I do not know if it will work with the K-2 students, but I did see a preschool daycare where three and four year olds were wearing masks.
Diane, thanks for posting this. So glad that Pritzger is at the helm. THIS is what leadership looks like! He (& Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, as well–WHit non-person Kaleigh McINANEy just got into a snit fit w/the Mayor–&, of course, both M.L.L. & J.B. are NOT intimidated, & answer back, unlike the moronic psychophants** supporting WHit. Both M.L.L. & Guv J.B. always stand back & let science speak the truth.
Also, the Guv has putt–his personal–money where his mouth is, purchasing PPE & hiring a plane to get it here (some from the Pritzker Foundation, too).
As I write this, I have tears in my eyes.
Thank G-d IL voted him in! I shudder to think that we may have been stuck w/another term of Bruce Ruiner–he couldn’t even get a budget passed…although he did spend his money, too, to repair the Governor’s Mansion. Wow.
**To all you teachers (Mr. Rendo! Although I do agree & admit that I go overboard w/parentheses) each & every one of my misspellings is on purpose, because they’re purposeful! (&–be forewarned–“psychophants,” thus far, is my word…but you can put it in your dictionary, Bob. As long as I get creds!)
Whoops–misspelled Pritzker–not on purpose! (My eyes are falling out from computer/Zoom/reading overload.)
& PUT, not putT. (That’s WHit–all that time spent on the golf course & not working for the good of the American People.)
And our taxpayer $$$$ have been paying for those vacations.