Chicago City Wire

Senator and Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey (Louisville) has slammed Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) as teachers in the state take their fight and displeasure with the governor's COVID-19 school mandates to court.

Bailey took to Twitter where he criticized Pritzker for the school mandates which include vaccination requirements, masks, and testing. 

"It's not about a vaccine, it's about freedom," Bailey wrote in his Dec. 16 tweet. "The mandate candidate, @JBPRitzker is acting like a tyrant & overstepping his power. These decisions should be between you & your doctor, and the government is not your doctor. Keep standing for freedom. #twill."

According to Illinois Policy, the class-action lawsuit named 22 school districts, the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Illinois State Board of Education and the governor. The teachers believe their rights under the state's Healthcare Right of Conscience Act are being violated through vaccination and testing requirements. 

“Should the educators object to these proposed health care services, the law prohibits the defendants from discriminating against them," the lawsuit stated, according to Illinois Policy.

Nearly 90 teachers, including Kimberly Smoot, a teacher at District 186, have signed on to the lawsuit. They want a judge to make a decision against vaccine requirements, testing, mask, and exclusion policies without orders of quarantined, the Lake McHenry County Scanner reported. 

“First we must test, then you take away the option to test and make us get the vaccine,” Smoot told the Springfield School Board, the Lake McHenry Scanner reported. “Next, that’s not enough and we must get a booster according to your schedule. When we give up our rights, even if it’s little by little, we will never get them back,” Smoot said.

Another teacher involved in the suit is Kadence Koen, who opposed the mandate that teachers get the COVID-19 vaccine, but later revealed she herself was vaccinated, the Sangamon Sun reported.

Attorney Thomas Devore is representing the teachers in the class-action lawsuits.