The Geneva School Board announced today that it will comply with the temporary restraining order issued by a Sangamon County judge and discontinue its requirement that all staff and students wear masks at school.
In an email, the School Board stated the following:
“Based on our understanding of the ruling and our district’s status as a named defendant, Geneva 304 believes that the TRO applies to all students, staff and visitors. Effective Tuesday, Feb. 8, District administration is implementing the following plan:
- Masking in Geneva 304 will be very strongly encouraged for all students, staff, and visitors in our buildings. Our district will continue to have masks available for individuals entering our buildings and will continue to offer those masks to any individual who is not wearing one. However, we will NOT be asking any of our staff members to enforce strict masking requirements.
- Masks will still be required when riding a District 304 school bus, due to a Federal Order.
- Due to the ruling, Geneva 304 will not be excluding close contacts.
- Per the Kane County Health Department, students and staff who test positive will be required to isolate and will be excluded from school.
- Any students and staff who are currently excluded due to being a close contact may choose to return to school effective Tuesday, Feb. 8.
- The current ruling has no bearing on IHSA expectations related to COVID-19″
The statement made clear that if Governor Pritzker’s request for an expedited appeal is successful, the district would return to its previous masking policy.
The decision follows a Friday ruling from a Sangamon County judge issuing a temporary restraining order on the Governor’s mask mandate for schools, arguing that such a mandate violates due process protections.
The ruling also accused Pritzker of trying to do an end-run around the issue by having the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) issue the policies, rather than the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).
“IDPH passed the buck to schools so as not not trigger the due process protections under [state law],” Judge Grischow wrote. “IDPH cannot delegate its duties and responsibilities to ISBE and then stand on the sidelines with its hands in the air, saying, ‘it wasn’t us. We didn’t exclude kids. We didn’t mandate vaccines. We didn’t implement a mask mandate…the schools did.’”
The Board stated that other COVID mitigation efforts such as physical distancing and situational monitoring would remain in place.
