Chicago City Wire

An Illinois lower court recently issued a temporary restraining order that stops school districts across the state from requiring students and staff to wear masks on campus, but some parents say that students who choose not to mask up are being isolated.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Raylene Grischow’s temporary restraining order, issued Friday, also labels other COVID-19 mandates and protocols “null and void,” including Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s mandate issued last fall that requires school personnel to be inoculated.

John Hall, who has three children attending St. Catherine of Alexandria in Oak Lawn, recalled to Chicago City Wire an instance in which his eldest son, an eighth-grader at the private Catholic school, was detained in the campus library for not wearing a mask.

“My son’s being quarantined; he’s being discriminated against,” Hall told the publication recounting what he said to the school’s receptionist. “It’s an absurd violation of his rights, his right to free speech.”

The temporary restraining order is a victory for the complainants in a lawsuit filed by a cadre of parents and teachers for which oral arguments were heard last month.

“This court acknowledges the tragic toll the COVID-19 pandemic has taken, not only on this state, but throughout the nation and globe,” Grischow wrote in the temporary restraining order. “Nonetheless, it is the duty of the courts to preserve the rule of law and ensure that all branches of government act within the bounds of the authority of the Constitution.”

The judge determined that Pritzker and several entities have been enforcing COVID-19 rules on students.

“Statutory rights have attempted to be bypassed through the issuance of Executive Orders and Emergency Rules. This type of evil is exactly what the law was intended to constrain," she said, Chicago City Wire reported.

Hall, who said he thinks more students will decide to go maskless, insists his son is “perfectly healthy.”

“We're fine with taking the risk of him, you know, the one in 100 million chance of him getting sick from the virus,” he told Chicago City Wire.

Hall said he respects those who choose to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but he believes if children want to interact with each other without masks, it’s their right.

The Archdiocese of Chicago, which operates St. Catherine of Alexandria through its Chicago Catholic Schools arm, could consider leaving the matter of masks to individual schools if it receives enough complaints, he added.

Chicago City Wire reported that Superintendent Greg Richmond notified parents in an email that he won’t recognize the ruling nullifying the governor’s statewide school mask mandate.

"The governor has already indicated he will appeal this ruling, which might lead to its immediate reversal," Richmond said, according to Chicago City Wire.

The segregation of students who apparently flout mask rules isn’t just limited to Illinois’ private and parochial schools.

The DuPage Policy Journal reported that Hinsdale Central High School is isolating an increasing number of maskless students in its auditorium.

Melissa Lane told the publication that the school detained her daughter, calling the action unnecessary.

“There're only 12 states (mandating masks in schools) and the rest of the states are doing fine,” Lane said, the DuPage Policy Journal reported. “Kids aren’t dropping dead in the streets."