McLean County Times

Illinois State Senator Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) said Gov. J.B. Pritzker's decision to keep children masked in school is "based on politics more than science.”

"Throughout the pandemic, Governor Pritzker has chosen a completely unilateral approach, with little to no transparency on the data he was basing decisions on," Barickmann said. "Today, he once again made a major decision with no input from the legislature, and it’s even more clear this time that it was based on politics more than science,” Barickman said in a statement.

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 McLean County, mask-optional districts include Heyworth CUSD 4. 

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."