Illinois Governor Wants Face Mask Requirement For Schools, Sues For Court Approval

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has preemptively sought court approval to require children to wear masks in schools when they reopen to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

In a statement to the Associated Press, Pritzker said: “As a father, I would not send my children to a school where face coverings are not required because the science is clear: Face coverings are critical to prevent the spread of coronavirus.”

Pritzker took action to forestall any effort to block a face mask order. Two private schools and a public school district have told the Illinois Board of Education they do not believe Pritzker has the authority to require face masks.

“Students need to prepare, parents need to know what’s coming, administrators need guidelines. Confusion on these things leads to risk. We’re sending a signal that this issue is not up for debate. The governor doesn’t have an option,” Ann Spillane, the governor’s chief legal counsel, told the AP.

Thomas DeVore, an attorney for Hutsonville Community School District No. 1 as well as Yorkville’s Parkview Christian Academy and Channahon’s Families of Faith Christian Academy, said in June letters to the state board an Illinois Supreme Court ruling in 1922 determined the government cannot make rules “which merely have a tendency to prevent” the spread of infectious diseases particularly if “arbitrary and unreasonable.” In the letters obtained by the AP, he also that Pritzker has no enforcement plan in place for mask violations, making them “recommendations” rather than rules.

Illinois reported nearly 160,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with more than 7,400 deaths from COVID-19 as of midafternoon on Friday, according to John Hopkins University.