Chicago-area schools face ‘warlike conditions,’ with protests and student walkouts over state’s mask mandate – Bloomington Pantagraph*

Al Llorens, vice president of the Illinois Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, said the turmoil facing school districts in recent weeks has found “educators who are afraid because they’re getting threatening emails, little kids are crying and high school kids are walking out....I don’t know what the answer is. It’s playing out in the courts and is the decision of the health department and the governor. But the students need to be our North Star.”