At a special board meeting Friday, the Hinsdale High School District 86 board voted unanimously to update the district’s COVID-19 mitigation strategies, shifting masking from required to strongly recommended after previously voting 5-2 for a mandate.
In an email following the meeting, board president Terrie Walker and Superintendent Tammy Prentiss said the decision to go mask optional was based on updated guidance from the DuPage County Health Department on Feb. 14, local COVID-19 metrics and the ruling by the Illinois appellate court on Feb. 17 that dismissed the state’s appeal of the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by a judge in Sangamon County on Feb. 4.
The judge sided with 700 parents from nearly 150 school districts that alleged students who object to wearing masks or being excluded from school for being a COVID-19 close contact are entitled to due process.
According to District 86 officials, less than 10 of their students across both high schools and the Transition Center are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
“As we transition to this revised approach for managing the spread of COVID-19 in our district and community, we ask everyone to please honor and respect the choices people make about masking,” Walker and Prentiss said in the joint email. “We also hope that the decision our board has made on this divisive topic will begin to bring people back together in support of the important work we all do on a daily basis to help our students down the path toward their ideal future.”
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During public comments at recent board meetings, including on Friday, several community members have urged the board to reconsider the mask requirement, citing a number of districts statewide that have done so. Some people held up signs that read, “unmask our kids,” while others waved papers saying, “enough is enough.”
“It is time for the kids to get back to learning,” Hinsdale resident Stephanie Dillard said on Friday. “Stop pushing your agenda and your politics on our children.”
Hinsdale South student Ethan Pan told the board that his opinion on not wanting to wear a mask was met with bullying from students who support masking. Pan said some students “yelled and cursed” at him and his friends while school administrators did nothing except “make sure they wore masks.”
From a procedural standpoint, the board has said several times that their practice is not to engage in a discussion with audience members during board meetings, which includes responding to what they say during public comment.
While the lawsuit sent school districts and community members into confusion and chaos over the last several weeks, the update on the ruling clarified that “the language of the TRO in no way restrains school districts from acting independently from the executive orders or the IDPH in creating provisions addressing COVID-19.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker requested the Illinois Supreme Court complete an expedited review of the ruling, and District 86 officials said they’ll continue to monitor the court case, as well as the other legal and legislative aspects of the situation.