McHenry Times

Republican gubernatorial candidate Gary Rabine is hoping Gov. J.B. Pritzker comes to learn about how government is intended to work in the wake of his masks mandate again recently being declared unconstitutional.

“For the second time in as many weeks, a court has slapped down Gov. Pritzker’s efforts to make parents bystanders in their kids’ health care decisions,” Rabine posted on Facebook. “Clinging to the egomaniacal notion that he knows better than parents how to raise their kids and better than the courts on how to apply the law, JB will continue to assert that his Executive Order still stands. It’s a Democracy JB, not a dictatorship.”

Sangamon County Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow recently issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the matter, effectively ending enforcement of the governor’s executive orders on masks in schools. Grischow’s ruling further stipulates state law designates the Illinois Department of Public Health as the “supreme authority” in matters of quarantine and isolation, not the governor. As part of her 30-page ruling, the judge also established that IDPH must adhere to state law in making sure due process standards are upheld to the letter of the law.

Even as the governor recently announced the state will be lifting its general statewide indoor mask mandate by Feb. 28, he has been noncommittal about the one impacting schools. While Pritzker has pledged to appeal Grischow’s ruling, more than 550 school districts across the state have made the decision to go fully mask-optional.

Much like Rabine, Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich) doesn’t expect to see Pritzker easily take no for an answer, arguing that Pritzker is trying to subvert the state’s courts  to maintain his policy standards by issuing a new mask mandate through the IDPH.

Grischow said the governor’s actions left opponents without the benefit of due process.

“The arbitrary method as to contact tracing and masking in general continue to raise fair questions as to the legality of the Executive Orders in light of violations of healthy children’s substantive due process rights,” she wrote. “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.”

In separate cases, the judge has denied motions for there to be class status, meaning the TRO would only impact the plaintiffs and the school districts that are part of the suit. In addition, Grischow has ordered Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez to appear before the court to answer a contempt of court complaint on the district’s behalf.

"It is ordered that Mr. Pedro Martinez, as agent for the City of Chicago School District #299, and the Board of Education of City of Chicago School District #299, shall personally appear before this court and show cause as to why the defendants should not be held in contempt for failure to abide by and comply with this Court's prior order of February 04, 2022," Grischow’s Feb. 14 order reads.

CPS was one of 145 defendant school districts sued by parents across the state seeking to end masking. As the cases have played out, attorney Tom DeVore has threatened to sue CPS for not obeying a restraining order preventing the district from treating students who unmask differently from those who continue to mask.

On the day after Grischow’s ruling, the DuPage Policy Journal reported Hinsdale Central High school officials were captured on video guiding students who refused to wear masks into an isolated area of the school. DeVore has vowed to start pursuing criminal complaints for contempt of court against school officials who abuse the rights of plaintiffs that are part of the suit.

“If I can confirm that the Hinsdale School District or any school district is isolating children that are plaintiffs in this case, and I know that to be true, I'm going to ask the judge, 'Put somebody in the county jail' as soon as I have the first available opportunity,” he said. “That's what I'm going to try to do because they cannot do that.”

A recent Pew Charitable Trust website analysis recently concluded that isolation is taking a heavy toll on students, with the number of emergency room visits among them for suspected suicide attempts jumping by 31% since the start of COVID and the Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association now declaring children’s mental health a “national emergency” since the start of COVID.