By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Parents and students of both Glenbrook High Schools North and South protested Friday against Illinois’ school mask mandate, one of many such demonstrations happening across the state.
Pressure against Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s mandate continues to build in the wake of an Illinois ruling striking down masks for students in some districts and the recent wave of blue states ending their own mask restrictions. Illinois is now one of just soon-to-be eight states demanding kids wear masks in school (see appendix).
Students of District 225 schools have every right to protest their situation. Their schools should have gone maskless long ago.
Protests continue
District 225, a two-high-school district of 5,100 students, includes students from both Glenview and Northbrook, Illinois.
Schools from the area have been in the news before. Late last year officials at Springman Middle School of Glenview CCSD 34 told students they couldn’t “gather outside the home” during part of winter break due to the district’s quarantine rules.
It’s also the school district that tragically lost high school senior and quarterback Dylan Buckner to suicide at the height of the pandemic’s lockdowns and restrictions. His family says that policy responses to COVID may have worsened his depression.
A student at today’s protest, who preferred to remain anonymous due to the risk of being canceled at school or rejected by colleges, told Wirepoints, “I don’t think schools should make decisions on student health. I believe that should be a parent and kid’s choice…If you want to wear a mask, I totally agree you can do that, I just don’t feel like I should be forced to.”
Since “it’s been two years since COVID first started” and “there’s never going to be zero COVID,” the sophomore said he’s comfortable with the risks involved.
He’s right about the limited risks, both to him and the community at large.
Not a single Glenview or Northbrook youth has died directly from COVID. In fact, only one area resident under the age of 40 since the start of the pandemic has died from COVID.
Like everywhere else, it’s the elderly and comorbid that are most impacted. Ninety-six percent of all “primary-cause” COVID deaths in Glenview and Northbrook since March 2020 have been aged 60 and older. And the data also shows that of those 275 deaths, 94 percent of them had at least one comorbidity.
The good news is that both those at-risk groups are now highly protected. Northbrook is the highest vaccinated community in Cook County, with a two-dose jab rate of over 80 percent, while Glenview is the 8th-most at 76 percent, according to the Cook County Department of Public Health.
Overall, Illinoisans aged 60 and older are now 95 percent-plus vaccinated.
At the rally, Wirepoints also spoke to Steve Baerson, a 1985 alumn of GBN and parent of two recent graduates, who told us the position he and other parents have taken on masks “follows the science” far more than the governor’s mandate. “The science is absolutely clear that non-pharmaceutical interventions don’t work. Johns Hopkins came out with a study last week reiterating that fact.”
“The district should follow the judge’s ruling and immediately drop the mask mandate and follow the science. There is no real evidence that masks are effective, but they certainly impair students’ learning and socialization.”
Baerson also highlighted the absurdity of Pritzker’s two years of emergency control: “To allow one-person rule without the consent or intervention of the elected branch, and to have the judiciary sit on the sidelines until a week ago – this shouldn’t be happening in Illinois.”
All the evidence shows Gov. Pritzker is far behind the curve on unmasking schoolchildren. He can expect ever more protests from parents and students as his restrictions continue to make Illinois even more of an outlier.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Two facts Illinois parents should know as outrage over school mask mandates heats up
- School Masks: What’s Behind Gov. Pritzker’s Blind Obstinance?
- Omicron shows Illinois masks and mandates aren’t working: A comparison of Illinois versus its neighbors
- Politics Getting Bad For Those Using Children As Human Covid Shields
- Nearly 40 percent of all Illinois COVID deaths in the last month are breakthroughs. What gives?
- Americans in 39 states aren’t subjected to a mask mandate. Why are Illinoisans?
Appendix.
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn’t you deliver a few bond upgrades, too
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.
I found out on Thurs that my 6 yr old grandson will no longer be forced to mask in school. School board voted mask optional, so I was happy.
But with a weekend to think about it, I see a new problem. Kids will be kids. Some will make fun of others because they are/are not wearing a mask.
We will soon see stories about the “bullying” that is happening to the sainted masked children, because the unwashed, unmasked are treating them badly. Wait for it. Children are abused now. Villianization is their next step.
And we hope the bullying might be confined to the kids, but alas, there are stories of teachers and staff doing the same. That’s child abuse. Those adults should be fired and arrested.
Unfortunate that Pritzker put Illinois kids in this position, the cad!
I hope we all remember this abuse and gross mismanagement in November.
Vote the bum out!
Lockport just announced it is mask optional on Monday. Id like to ask the superintendent… Teachers are really in favor of masks as well as their union, so I assume you’ll be requiring the teachers to mask up right? This is just optional for the students right, since teachers have made it well known they enjoy masks! I wonder how many teachers will be living up to their mask wearing principles!
All the districts protesting the mask mandates are the one that receive minimal funding from the state while their parents’ incomes subsidize all the other school districts. These are the families that keep the state afloat. They’re your profit centers. When normally docile upper middle class families show up to protests, you’ve lost the war.
It’s a very loud plurality of parents driving the momentum. There is likely another plurality of parents who agree but aren’t nearly as worked up. Then there is about 30-40% of parents that are forced maskers but are too afraid to speak out given the intense anti-mask environment. The school board members elected during the Trump era mostly reflect these values. They are afraid to speak out why they vote for masking and like cowards.
Since the issuance of the CDC’s report last week, why haven’t Illinois state Republican GA members, in unison, demanded an end to the governor’s mandate? Where are they? We voted for milquetoasts, that’s why. Here’s my state representative’s response to the governor’s announcement earlier this week: “Today Governor Pritzker had the opportunity to tell our state’s schools, parents and children what his plan is and give them hope for a return to a more normal life. Instead, he left them in the dark making it clear he has no plan. To say I’m disappointed in this lack of leadership is… Read more »
Republican GA’s live in areas mostly unaffected by the Gov’s executive orders. They’ve all but abandoned the conservatives north of I-80
Good point. Blindness to authoritarian rule is centered in Chicago, particularly lakefront libs.
Conservatives these days are only a quarter of cook county and concentrated roughly in a NW and SW cooridor extending outwards from the city limits.
Downstate has been far less cooperative or recognizing of the Gov’s executive orders at every level of government. That’s why as much I agree with Bailey for Gov. of probably all the candidates, I’m not sure he has any idea how crazy people are up here, and how little traction his campaign will get up here.
Agree about Bailey. Unfortunately, his southern accent will have all the „Hate Has No Home Here” (rofl!) standard-bearers looking down their nose at the „redneck”. To them, I say… „Yipee kai-yay m….”
Well said. We need leadership against the tyranny of Pritzker and his minions.
The Covidstan Cult will not go quietly into the good night. The mask is their talisman.
The proper term is “Branch Covidians”
Why would you protest the masks you all voted to put that school board in place
Because the school board went full communist.
School boards are going to typically going err on the side of caution and do what everyone else is doing. Independent thought is not rewarded at that level. Besides, they risk being labeled racist and child killers.
OL HS Dist. 229 is a prime example of that…
The claim is about caution, but it’s really virtue signaling. At least my local school board made it seem that way because there is no scientific basis for making 5 year olds.
True they elected them, but it doesn’t mean they enjoy masking, they were just stupid. Most voters don’t know squat about who they are voting for when they step into the booth especially school board candidates. So they close their eyes and flip a coin.
Remember this when it’s time to vote.
Not sure why those that insist on “masks for all” for safety’s sake are so concerned about this. If the masks work so well, then aren’t they protected?
If you want to strap an N95 to your kids face till the end of time, be my guest but after two years the rest of us are no longer required to follow along. This is pure virtue signaling at its finest.
It’s a MAGA hat for the libs.
Well we’ll soon see how many teachers in mask optional schools continue to live up to their principles of double masking themselves when all the kids have smiles and sparking teeth showing. This is over, we won, the mask Nazi’s lost.