Chambana Sun

Illinois State Senator Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) said Governor J.B. Pritzker's refusal to lift mask mandates for schools show he is "moving to punish all those who defy him."

"He is saying that kids in school are different than adults at the workplace. How dare a parent make a decision in their own child’s best interest - not J.B. Pritzker’s political interest," Rose said. "But, boy, is he ever going to show them how smart he is – moving to punish all those who defy him. Everyday more and more school districts, parents, and children are walking away from him in outright revolt."

Rose said Pritzker claims he is "following the science" when he is actually following fellow Democrat governors.

“It is now abundantly clear that JB Pritzker’s ‘scientists’ are actually the Governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California," Rose said. "What a joke."

Pritzker announced Wednesday afternoon that he could lift the mask mandate for places of business on Feb. 28, but that he would still require them for schools. That's five days after a Sangamon County judge declared his statewide "emergency" school mandate school rules "null and void."

“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," she wrote.

Since, more than 200 public school districts across Illinois and most Catholic ones-- outside of those in Cook and Lake Counties-- have already announced they are "mask optional."

In Champaign County, Mahomet-Seymour CUSD 3, Fisher CUSD 1, Prairieview-Ogden CCSD 197 and Gifford CCSD 188 are all mask-optional

Dan Montgomery, President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, said Saturday that students going mask-less is "threat to public health" and that it prevents "normalcy at school."

We believe that what the judge ordered today is legally faulty and a threat to public health and, most importantly, a threat to keeping Illinois schools open for in-person learning," Montgomery said. "Our children and their families need certainty and some normalcy at school, not legal wrangling managed by a small minority of citizens."