School officials are reacting to an incident at Maine South High School in Park Ridge this week that involved a group of students acting out and yelling obscenities in opposition to the continued mask requirement in school.
About 75 students left the Park Ridge school campus on Feb. 8 after some students became disruptive over the school’s mask mandate in the school commons area and nearby hallway between passing periods, said Principal Ben Collins.
In a letter to parents, Collins said the incident involved students “taking off their masks, yelling obscenities and disobeying repeated pleas from administration to return to class.”
Collins wrote that he was both “deeply saddened” and “embarrassed” by the students’ behavior, which disrupted the school day for other students.
“This type of behavior has no place at Maine South High School and will not be tolerated,” his letter said.
Collins declined to comment on whether any students have been disciplined.
Maine Township High School District 207 Superintendent Ken Wallace called the incident a premeditated act that was committed with the aim of disrupting the school day.
“The hardest part of navigating through the pandemic is the increasing loss of civility,” Wallace said Wednesday. “People think if you just yell and insult and call names it somehow makes their position right. And it’s just the opposite. We have to remember when we disagree that we do it respectfully and listen to each other to try to have an understanding.”
The school also experienced a food fight in the cafeteria and a written bomb threat on the stall of a restroom that was investigated by administrators and determined to be unsubstantiated, according to Collins.
Both Collins and Wallace stressed that the vast majority of Maine South students are following the school’s mask requirements and were not involved in the incident that occurred in the commons. Wallace expressed concern that some students are hearing from their parents that it is OK to engage in this behavior.
“Just because someone cusses doesn’t mean we are going to change the rules,” Wallace said.
Collins, who said he encourages students to reach out and talk to him, said he has given a small group of students the go-ahead to plan a peaceful, on-campus demonstration against the mask mandate.
“As we were walking in together in the morning, we just started talking and I said, ‘All you’ve got to do is talk to me, shoot me an email and request a meeting so we can give you space to do this safely,'” Collins said.
More discussions, including how to keep the event safe, were anticipated.
“We support the right for students to exercise their First Amendment rights and freedom of speech and we have avenues for them to do that and have always met those requests when students have planned them out with us,” Collins said. “What happened yesterday was not a good reflection of that. I think at this point, the majority of the student body wants to move on from this and is really sick and tired of dealing with it in a way that disrupts their learning environment.”
Anger over mask wearing in schools erupted during a Feb. 7 meeting of the Park Ridge-Niles School District 64 at Emerson Middle School where a group of unmasked people disrupted the meeting by entering through the stage area and chanting “unmask our children.”
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Members of the group clashed with other audience members during the meeting.
Several parents and students also addressed the District 207 School Board on Feb. 7 in favor of ending the mask requirement. The meeting was less contentious, though one speaker did address the board angrily.
Following a Sangamon County judge’s ruling to temporarily suspend in-school mask and quarantine mandatesthat were put into place through executive orders by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, District 207 made the decision to continue requiring students and staff to wear masks in school buildings.
Wallace explained that the district prefers to wait until the ruling is appealed and a decision on the appeal is made. The reason, he said, is that the district does not want to lift the requirement only to reinstate it if the appeal is successful.
Following COVID-19 mitigations and mask wearing in buildings — along with a high vaccination rate among students and staff — has kept District 207 schools open over the last two school years, Wallace said.
Other area school districts are also continuing to require students to wear masks. They include District 64, East Maine School District 63, Niles School District 71, Golf School District 67 in Morton Grove, Niles Township High School District 219, Des Plaines School District 62 and Chicago Public Schools.
Unruly behavior among teens has been a problem outside Maine South. The Park Ridge Park District Board this month heard of ongoing incidents at the Centennial Fitness Center involving young people described as “disrespectful” to staff and members of the center and refusing to follow the building’s rules.