By Ted Dabrowski
On Monday morning a group of parents and students spoke to camera crews in 18 degree weather to call on the board of Wilmette School District 39 to join the many Illinois school districts that have recently gone mask optional. Over 500 private schools and school districts have ended their mask mandates this month as a result of the recent ruling by an Illinois judge in favor of parents and teachers from over 150 districts. Wilmette 39, which was not a defendant in the lawsuit, has four elementary and two junior high schools with more than 3,400 students.
Wilmette parent Chris Beer, who is leading a petition drive that has garnered more than 500 signatures calling for mask choice, shared this with Wirepoints, “We have some of the highest vaccination rates in the state. The district’s teachers and staff are 98 percent vaccinated. Nearly 80 percent of the Wilmette community is vaxxed, too. And everything we know says masks are hurting our kids and their social, emotional and physical development. We want to see our kids smile again.”
The school board has signaled that it’s working on an “off ramp,” but Beer is worried the board is failing to keep up with what’s happening both in Illinois and nationally. In addition to the many districts now embracing choice in Illinois, the states of New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Oregon and Massachusetts all recently set a target date for dropping school masks. Illinois is one of just soon-to-be eight states to still mandate masks in schools (see appendix for map).
The rally caught the attention of TV stations WGN, Fox32, ABC7 and NBC5. One young District 39 student, a 10-year old, talked about how difficult it’s been for her to breath
and the anxiety she’s faced wearing masks. She also said that masks made her frustrated and sad.
The science against masking continues to pile up. Wirepoints released new commentary on Monday that called out Illinois officials for having no science behind its school masking mandate. We took a close look at what both Illinois and the CDC are relying on as science. The vast evidence and expert opinion now published shows that masks on school kids have little if any value, which in any event is outweighed by harm being done to our children.
Beer closed her comments to Wirepoints with this: “All we want is choice in our schools. We respect those that want to continue to mask their own children, but after two years and everything we now know about the virus, it’s time for individual families to make their own masking choice.”
“We need an expedited decision from our school board. Kids of parents who want choice shouldn’t be forced to bear the continued costs of masking.”
For more reading by Wirepoints and other groups on the case against masks:
- The Case Against Masks at Schools – The Atlantic
- Masking: A Careful Review of the Evidence – AEIR
- More than 150 Comparative Studies and Articles on Mask Ineffectiveness and Harms – Brownstone Institute
- Did Mask Mandates Work? The Data Is In … And the Answer Is ‘No’ – Bloomberg
- Politics Getting Bad For Those Using Children As Human Covid Shields – Wirepoints
- Omicron shows Illinois masks and mandates aren’t working: A comparison of Illinois versus its neighbors – Wirepoints
- Politics Getting Bad For Those Using Children As Human Covid Shields – Wirepoints
- Evidence of Mask-Induced Brain Fog – Brownstone Institute
- That Study of Face Masks Does Not Show What the CDC Claims – Reason
- Nearly 40 percent of all Illinois COVID deaths in the last month are breakthroughs. What gives? – Wirepoints
- Why Americans Can’t Trust the CDC’s COVID-19 Advice – Reason
- After 2 years, growing calls to take masks off children in school – NPR
- Americans in 39 states aren’t subjected to a mask mandate. Why are Illinoisans? – Wirepoints
- The CDC Director’s Slippery Response to Criticism of School Mask Mandates Further Undermines Her Agency’s Credibility – Reason
- Grading the Governors – Who locked down and who opened? – Brownstone Institute
Appendix
Audio and summary 
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
The only thing keeping your kids behind masks right now is the teachers union. Masking is their club to retain remote classes, a form of early retirement for teachers. When a school goes mask optional, the union will have to ask teachers to keep their masks on, those who don’t will be scabs. Meanwhile the school will be full of smiling unmasked kids who are much more socially mature than their piss and vinegar teachers, who at that point will be the sociopaths.
In many districts, it’s more than the teachers’ union although they are a powerful force. Also causing this is are covid-crazy parents who are obsessed with masks and very, very emotional about it. These parents have great influence over the progressive covid-crazy board members. So this triumvirate of teachers’ unions, covid-crazy parents and progressive board members form a small minority of powerful players that keep children in masks over the strenuous objection of thousands of fed up parents.
Welcome to democracy. It ain’t pretty. You ought to think far more than twice about ever running for a political office. Its a life of woe.
It’s become that way, for sure. But it didn’t used to be. At my town’s most recent school board meeting, one of the long time board members said that before now, board meetings consisted of 7 people with no member for the public even bothering to show up.
But then the communists in 2016-2020 decided to take over the boards and they alone are responsible for the current drama. If they took the masks off kids and stopped promoting gender theory/CRT to Kindergarteners, things would go back to normal.
I don’t think the teachers unions are a factor at all at D39. Board and administration are 1) justifying the failed policies they’ve implemented thus far and 2) continue to hide behind the Pritzker dictates and that removing masks would be “against the law”. I don’t know D39’s legal counsel but they clearly don’t know what they are talking about. And her comments during the board meeting were extremely condescending.
D128 (Libertyville/Vernon Hills) going optional as of February 28. I firmly believe we would not be here had so much pressure not been applied. We had some very well-spoken parents and students fighting for our rights. So thankful. This is only the first of many fights as I see it. We have a couple very liberal board members join our board this past fall. They are there to change our schools. We cannot let that stand.
By ‘very liberal’ you mean progressive communist. They took over all the school boards across the country during the Trump era as the progressives ran ‘Run for Something’ campaigns. These candidate recruitment drives attracted the most awful and ideological minded Trump Derangement Syndrome candidates who care little for civic duty and everything for forcing cultural wars like drag queen story hour on your children. They don’t care about budgets, or bond issues, or rote administration, they care only for the curriculum and how quickly they can pivot to CRT and gender theory. It’s a disgrace but the tide seems to… Read more »
All true. Just want to add that at least in our community, it is the teachers who accost you in the Jewel parking lot to campaign for their preferred board members. In fact, they passed out easy reference cards with the names so you could remember who to vote for. They have been cheering this on all the way.
I’ve been mask less since Jan 2 2022 everywhere I go, and I’m batting 995%
Wow this came out so quickly it’s almost like it was written BEFORE the supposed protest, where the media outnumbered the protestors, where half the attendees don’t have kids in D39, in fact one doesn’t even live in Wilmette
It’s called responsible journalism – being proactive rather than reactive. The protest was organized, which means it was planned. And why wouldn’t parents want the press aware beforehand to amplify their message? The thuggish teachers unions plan and scheme and use the press to their advantage. Rise up, parents!
“where half the attendees don’t have kids in D39”
So the taxpayer in those districts have no say? is this what you imply?
What’s your point. We know most of who attended so you clearly don’t know what you are talking about.
really? let me count the non d39 parents…Mary L, Gail S, Pam R (lives in winnetka) Caroleanne E Mark W, Stacy S , Ted D no kids in D39 i think that leaves about ten protestors? out of how many thousands of parents? Joe from the record concurs about 10 actual parents there protesting. https://www.therecordnorthshore.org/2022/02/14/as-school-masking-opposition-gets-louder-wilmette-district-39-sets-course-for-feb-22-decision/ I’ve seen longer lines at starbucks
So there’s a minimum size requirement for protesting? And why can’t non-parents protest? They are concerned citizens, grandparents, taxpayers, etc. You call it a joke. I call it a good start. As you article headline says, the opposition is getting louder. This is far from over. As more parents work up the courage, you won’t be able to count them all. Have a Starbucks and watch.
All of the parents (or at least those not part of the radical left) owe a debt of gratitude to the Canadian truckers occupying Ottawa and blocking the Ambassador Bridge. Without these protests having scared the local and Federal governments sh*tless, our local leaders would have been happy to continue masking until the end of the school year—-making up the rules as they go like they have the past two years. It was after, not before, these protests that dropping masks started being seriously discussed in blue states.
Amen Conrad!-and Canadian truckers!
If a school goes mask optional, would a teacher be out of line with their union if they too took off their mask in class? To a sane person, of course not. But the union knows if schools go mask optional its game over for them using this ‘safety” tactic, because their very own member teachers will probably not wear a mask in front of a classful of gleeming teeth smiling kids.
The key here is “mask choice.” If you want to wear a mask until 2525, go right ahead. If not, take it off. This is the right path going forward, especially through the end of the school year.
Surely our Democratic leadership is pro-choice?!
Nah, it’s like every other idea the left has. It only works if everybody does it.
I applaud these parents – they represent a large ‘silent majority’.
According to Crap Fax, they cite one online nationwide survey from YouGov that says forced maskers are the majority.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the general public has been telling pollsters that they are OK with school masking because they have been so propagandized by MSM and the government. But the truth is gradually coming out, as has been so often the case recently on so many things.
wow now that’s some real conspiracy theory right there, you don’t like the polling so it must be false? yikes!
Have you not been paying attention to polls the last five years?
Exactly what reality do you live in? Because it’s not the one we live in.
If you don’t use your own name your opinion is meaningless, try unmasking your own identity.
Using that logic, an author using a pseudonym shouldn’t be published – “meaningless” authors like Agatha Christie, CS Lewis, JK Rowling and Stephen King. Stay on topic and please avoid going personal, it demeans your message.
Yougov does internet polling which is not accurate. Kind of like here when everything gets down voted. I couldn’t find the crapfax article but the results may have been taken out of context or misrepresented. You can find the “survey” at yougov, the question was who should have the say on whether school kids should mask. Parents 36%, School Administrators 24%, Government 18%, Teachers 7% clearly parents is the highest percentage however yougov combined all the others to com up with 49%. Even the liberal NY Times is reporting the tide is turning.
Good. So 3 out of 5 students can continue to wear masks. They can congratulate themselves for being in the perceived majority. Just let the other 2 out of 5 students free.
Bravo to the parents that are finally standing up against this masking silliness-ole JB has got to be nervous,”what do i do now”? says JB,”I know,I ll eat my 3rd pizza today,that’ll make me feel better”!
LOL