McHenry Times

No “gathering outside the home” school admin tells kids Check out what Glenview officials are demanding of some students. 

No “gathering outside the home” extends into winter break, school administrators tell parents

 

For the latest example of how school administrators are increasingly exerting their power over families, check out what Glenview, Illinois officials are demanding of some students. It has many parents irate.

Administrators have ordered all eighth graders at the 840-student Springman Middle School to go remote until after January 3. The officials’ justification is an “outbreak” of cases among eighth graders at the school. In Illinois, an outbreak is defined as at least three cases within a specified core group. Springman sixth and seventh graders will continue to attend the school as normal. 

The return to remote learning is already more than enough to upset parents. There’s a near-universal agreement across the country that remote learning has been an absolute failure during COVID. “It’s unacceptable, taking healthy kids and refusing them in-person education with less than a half-day’s notice," Jennifer Preston, a mother with an eighth grader in the school district, told Wirepoints. 

But there’s another part of the protocol that equally outrages many parents. From the district’s letter to eighth-grade parents:

Students should not attend activities beginning this afternoon [Dec. 8] or otherwise gather outside of the home; these gatherings could lead to additional spread, which could impact our ability to return to an in-person environment on January 3.

District admins are effectively forbidding any interactions between students not just during the period of remote learning, but into the winter break. The last day of school is December 17, but administrators want all Springman eighth graders in their homes through December 21.

“It’s extreme,” says Amy Laurencelle, a parent with an eighth-grade daughter at Springman. “According to their rules, we can’t begin our family celebrations until they say we can.”

Another parent summed up the hypocrisy: “I have a hard time imagining these same school board members not going on vacation or gathering."

Not only does the district’s decision affect in-person learning, but other activities unrelated to the school are also being impacted.

 Children from Springman are being told by their local Catholic church that they can’t attend religious classes. And a basketball league that prepares kids for high school basketball – the Jr. Titans – won’t let Springman eighth graders attend practice.

Glenview’s COVID facts

Remote learning out of an “abundance of caution” looks even more arbitrary when looking at the village of Glenview’s COVID facts. 

For starters, Glenview is actually the 6th-most vaccinated community in Cook County, according to the Cook County Department of Public Health. It has a one-dose vaccination rate of over 90 percent and a two-dose rate of over 70 percent. 

And according to the district website, Glenview SD34 has a teacher and staff vaccination rate of 97 percent.

The high level of vaccination for at-risk residents in the community – the elderly and those with underlying conditions – has helped. Since the emergence of the Delta variant in July, there have been just nine deaths in Glenview with COVID listed as the primary cause, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner. All victims were aged 69 or older and every one of them had serious comorbidities. 

And an important note as it relates to schools: No one under the age of 20 in Glenview has died from COVID since the inception of the pandemic. In fact, of the 18 youth deaths in Cook County, none have occurred in the North or Northwest suburbs, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner.

Frustrations

Parents’ other big frustration comes from how quickly the change was sprung on them – and how little the school board or the administration seems to care about parental input.

“It doesn’t seem like feedback from the community is fully considered by the school board,” local parent Ed Forsberg told Wirepoints.

Amy Laurencelle agrees. “We just need more transparency from the school board so we know what to anticipate given that this virus isn’t going away.”

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As Omicron picks up, look for other districts to follow suit. Students will end up being punished out of “an abundance of caution” and arbitrary mitigation rules. 

"We’re two years into this pandemic, we know the risks,” Jennifer Preston told us. Given what we know now, kids should remain in school. 

All Illinois parents should be on the lookout for their school district to regress back to remote learning. Like Wirepoints on Facebook and share this piece with others to spread the word.

P.S. Check out the latest episode of Wirepoints' podcast. Mark and Ted sit down with Author Matt Rosenberg to discuss his new book What Next, Chicago? Notes of a Pissed-Off Native Son. 

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