Clarendon Hills Schools Go To Remote Learning In Wake Of Order Against COVID-19 Mask Mandate, While Some Students And Parents Protest

CLARENDON HILLS, Ill. (CBS) — It was an emotional day of outrage, elation, and confusion for students, parents, and educators across Illinois Monday, as they tried to sort through a judge’s order suspending the COVID-19 mask mandate at 145 districts around the state.

Now several Illinois schools districts – including many within the Chicago suburbs – have decided they will no longer enforce masks. Some such districts are not even part of the lawsuit.

READ MORE: Gary Police Sgt. William Fazekas Shot While Responding To Report Of Shots Fired

But in west suburban Clarendon Hills, officials decided just to cancel in-person classes entirely Monday.

As CBS 2’s Meredith Barack reported, the purpose of the move to remote learning in Clarendon Hills classes was to avoid confusion. But many students skipped the at-home lessons, preferring an in-person protest here at Community Consolidated School District 181 headquarters instead. The protest was against a mask mandate, and participants chanted, “Open our schools!”

“Most people at our school don’t want to,” said eighth grader Stella McCarroll, “Like as you can see, there’s so many people here that don’t want this.”

Stella said she and other students simply want a choice when it comes to masks.

“For the people that really want them should be able to wear them, but for people this is causing problems for, and it’s hard for them, they shouldn’t have to wear them,” she said.

But it’s unclear if that will happen at District 181, as school leaders declared an emergency day on Monday – implementing remote instruction.

READ MORE: School Districts Differ In Response To Judge’s Halt On Pritzker’s Mask Mandate

A note to families Sunday night cited a strong likelihood of disruption in the district’s schools that would have a negative impact on instruction and learning.

But instead of logging into class, many students came to the protest to voice their opinion on the matter.

The district has recorded more than 700 positive COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the school year. But despite that, parents say they want to be able to send their kids to school without a mask – and they respect those who want their kids to continue wearing a mask in class.

We tried to find a local family who wanted to see the mask mandate continued in Clarendon Hills – but were unsuccessful.

“It’s OK if you want to wear a mask, but it’s our choice as well – and we don’t want our children masked,” said Andrew Goss, a parent of second graders in the district, “so to have it even optional – I think that that should be offered.”

After a year of remote learning, and now mask-wearing, the Gosses said they just want their daughters to have a more normal school experience.

“We just wish that they could experience kind of what we had,” Goss said.

MORE NEWS: ‘It Was Just Reckless,’ Daughter Says Of Shootout That Killed Bobbye Johnson, 55, When Security Guard Opened Fire In Bronzeville

The district declined Barack’s request for a comment, as they say this subject is related to ongoing litigation. They are, however, holding a virtual meeting right now, where they are discussing their next steps.

For all the latest Health News Click Here 

 For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! TheDailyCheck is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected] The content will be deleted within 24 hours.