This is a countdown of the top 10 stories of 2022 written by Cat Petersen and/or Kevin Woodard. These are stories in the sense of “stories we followed.” Each of these “stories” had multiple stories written about them and published on our web site.
Number 3. Masking Children
As the calendar turned to 2022 it was the beginning of a new year. But it was in the middle of the fall and winter cold, flu and covid season. Likewise society was in the middle of a debate regarding covid protocol.
Children hadn’t attended school in the 2020-2021 school year. Therefore when they returned to school in the fall of 2021 it was the first time children had attended school while the world was dealing with the covid pandemic. A debate ensued regarding whether or not children should be required to wear masks. At the beginning of 2022 that debate was raging.
We wrote a story in January that compared Blomington-Normal’s two school district’s vastly different approaches to dealing with children forgetting to wear masks. District 87’s stance was harsh, while Unit 5’s was loving and practical.
“Students are to bring their own mask to school. This is a mandatory requirement and part of our safety protocols. If a student forgets a mask they will be given one. However, if a student forgets again, we may contact the family to bring one to the school before the student can attend class,” stated an an email sent from D87 administration to staff.
“While we ask students to bring a mask, we understand they may sometimes forget. We have extra masks on the buses and at the schools and distribute them as needed. Parents do not need to run one out,” said Dayna Brown, Unit 5 Communications Director.
In February we wrote about KJ Sniff, who was a member of the senior class at Normal West High School. Sniff has autism and protested the mask mandate by refusing to wear one. He was held in the principal’s office for over two hours and was then told he would not be allowed to attend senior night.
Sniff had made the school aware he had autism and provided the school with proper documentation. But still he was told he could not participate in senior night. Sniff said he and his family were filing a discrimination complaint with the office for civil rights.
Meanwhile a Sangamon County court ruling was changing the landscape. Normal Police Chief Rick Bleichner told us “I can certainly say that there was a report filed with an allegation or concern about masks being required at Unit 5. That’s something we are looking at. We have to take a look at it and we would do that in consultation with the school district, with the state’s attorney.
Then, within a week, the State of Illinois Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) a bipartisan legislative oversight committee, voted to suspend the latest version of COVID-19 mitigations for public schools, including mandated masking. JCAR is authorized to conduct systematic reviews of administrative rules promulgated by State agencies.
And just like that. Most districts across the state folded. The masking requirements disappeared in those cases. Unit 5 sent an email out to staff saying, “Unit 5 is recommending masks be worn as an important COVID mitigation but effective immediately individuals will not be excluded if they do not wear a mask.”
The next day Unit 5 sent out an email to parents that read in part, “The district is recommending masks be worn as an important COVID mitigation but effective immediately they are no longer required by students, employees, and visitors.”
District 87 was not quite so quick to react and continued to follow the same mask and vaccination protocols they had been for a couple of more days before changing its policy to masks recommended.
But the legacy of the masks in schools issue continues. Many people were upset with how their children were treated during the time of the mandates. And some are taking manners into their own hands.
A group of parents in Fairbury is starting a private school in their area to provide parents a choice when it comes to where their children can attend school. Dismayed at actions taken by government during the COVID crisis they are doing this for the sake of their children and other children in the vicinity.
The parents eyes were opened to see how school systems work. Governor JB Pritzker and his governmental overreach had tied the hands of school boards across the state. Upon advice from their attorneys, based on concerns regarding liability, they didn’t dare not follow the Governor’s illegal mandates. School administration and teachers had no choice but to follow the rules.
The Fairbury group is partnering with the Gratefully Reclaiming A Conservative Education (GRACE) Association. GRACE assists parents interested in starting schools by hiring teachers and providing furniture. It also provides their curriculum which is drawn largely from the home-schooling curriculum Abeka.
Likewise, a group in Bloomington is working with GRACE to start a school. Angels4Freedom seeks to safeguard children.
Angels4Freedom started during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to their website the groups mission is, “bringing people together to help fight tyranny, through means of education, active and informed involvement, and faith in God; to begin the process of taking back our country; to safeguard our children and family, our health, our jobs, and our freedoms, for today and the future.”
Angels filed suit against Unit Five and District 87 stopping mask mandates. They; support parents homeschooling their children, assist people wanting to run for school boards, promote finding and training poll watchers to promote election integrity and help people file for public records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Last fall GRACE opened its second and third schools. In addition to its existing campus in Channahon, schools were started in Naperville and Romeoville. Currently they are considering opening schools in at least 16 other locations.
