Parents of students in Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills Community Consolidated District 181 and residents of Hinsdale had a range of emotions as the district implemented a mask-optional policy starting Tuesday.
Monday night, District 181 Superintendent Hector Garcia told parents in an email that they intend to comply with the temporary restraining order (TRO) lifting mask mandates in schools that was issued Friday by Sangamon County Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow.
If the court order involving a lawsuit filed by parents from nearly 150 school districts — including District 181 and District 86 — is reversed or modified on appeal, they will immediately return to a mask mandate, Garcia said.
District 181 community members gathered outside the administration center Monday afternoon for a “parents for choice” protest after school officials switched to remote instruction while they figured out what to do, and before they announced plans for a return to in-person instruction.
According to Clarendon Hills Police Chief Paul Dalen, the protest drew 200 demonstrators.
Of those rallying in opposition to a mask mandate was Natalie Heitmann, whose children attend St. Isaac Jogues.
“I live in the D181 district, I live in Hinsdale, so I pay the taxes,” she said after the protest. “The kids were speaking up and it was really emotional for a lot of the parents there.”
The Joliet Diocese on Monday said masks would be optional for all students starting Tuesday — the same stance District 181 took following an emergency board meeting on Monday.
“It’s huge. I think after 700 days of (masking), we’re done. And the kids are done,” Heitmann said. She said her 4-year-old daughter went to school without a mask on Monday.
“She bravely went into her class without a mask and did not wear one all day and that was her choice, and the teacher asked her if she wanted to wear one and she said, ‘no’,” Heitmann said.
“There’s no going back for us, personally,” she added. “I’m very happy that I personally decided to take more of a stand, it’s hard because you’re putting your kids on the front line but it’s directly affecting the kids so it’s hard for them not to be on the front lines. And I can speak for my kids and the kids I know in the community — they don’t want to wear masks.”
Uma Levy, Hinsdale resident and pediatrician at Northwestern Medicine in Glen Ellyn, said she is concerned about COVID-19 cases skyrocketing in schools that have implemented a mask-optional policy, even if temporarily.
“I hope that’s not going to happen but that’s my biggest concern. And people argue that kids don’t get sick with COVID-19, but as a pediatrician I can say that is absolutely not true,” Levy said. “They can end up in the hospital, some of them immediately, some of them with later complications and some of them with long-Covid symptoms. It’s not a benign disease for children.”
Levy’s two children — a 4th grader and a 6th grader — attend schools in District 181.
“Some kids may really not want to wear masks but my kids are 9 and 11, they have zero problem wearing a mask and in fact prefer it because they feel safer,” Levy said. “I think it’s a matter of how masks are presented to children and what the discussions are at home. I really think these kids (at the protest) are either being told what to say or they’ve just had a negative opinion about masks that they’ve been hearing and have internalized.”
In the court ruling, the judge sided with nearly 700 parents who signed onto a lawsuit against 146 school districts alleging that students who object to wearing masks or being excluded from school for being a COVID-19 close contact are entitled to due process.
Jill Mankus, whose daughter goes to District 181, said she is already looking into alternatives like home schooling if the TRO is reversed.
“Parents are furious,” Mankus said. “Time is up. Unmask the kids!”
The restraining order only applies to families, staff members and school districts that are part of the litigation, which has led to varying responses from school districts in the same town.
While District 181 is going to make masks optional or recommended for all students, Hinsdale High School District 86 is exempting only the students whose parents are named in the lawsuit from wearing masks, which has made matters complicated for students that are not named in the lawsuit, but refuse to comply with the district’s COVID-19 rules.
District 181 officials said employees are still required to wear masks and the exclusion protocols for students and staff who are sick or experiencing COVID-19 symptoms remain unchanged.
“While we will not mandate mask compliance by students during this temporary suspension, we strongly recommend individuals to continue to wear masks. This will help ensure continuity of in-person instruction,” Garcia said in a statement.
Levy added that the brunt of the chaos surrounding mask-wearing in schools is misinformation and a clear divide in the country as far as people who deal with COVID-19 and people who don’t.
“I feel like there’s a huge lack of understanding about it. And the lack of caring,” Levy said. “It’s been so overly politicized from the beginning [and] people don’t believe that masks actually prevent transmission of infection — people think it’s a matter of personal choice. Now it’s become a legal matter when it’s actually a matter of public health.”
Katie Hines-Shah, a Hinsdale Central parent and local pastor, said she too is worried about what’s to come with the possibility of more and more students attending school without a mask.
“We’ve had members hospitalized for Covid and my uncle died of the disease. I serve a lot of vulnerable people who even with vaccines, are still susceptible to Covid,” Hines-Shah said. “My family is vaccinated and boosted but we still wear masks for the sake of those most at risk since even vaccinated people can be Covid carriers and masks are one way we can lower the risk of infecting others.”
Levy said that it’s for those reasons that people need to understand that COVID-19 is still a serious disease, and wearing a mask isn’t just about individual choice.
“A lot of people opposed to masks argue, ‘oh it’s just like a cold, the kids will be fine,’ but there’s a small majority that won’t,” Levy said. “And don’t we need to protect those kids? Don’t we need to protect the ones that have cancer or are immunosuppressed in some other way, or have an elderly caregiver at home? Don’t we need to think as a community and care for these people? There’s been such a lack of caring and it’s been extremely disheartening to me as somebody who cares for kids as a living.”