Lake County Gazette

In Antioch, most schools have started requiring students to wear masks as an Illinois School District is being sued to stop critical race theory from being taught and leaving many to wonder where is parent choice.

Currently, parents do not have a choice in either. 

Antioch Community High School District 117 and Antioch Elementary School District 34, are both requiring students and staff to wear masks, according to both schools' websites. 

The Antioch School District 34 will require all students, staff, and visitors to wear a face-covering while in Antioch CCSD 34 buildings and on school busses, Superintendent Bradford Hubbard said. He said he’s heard from many stakeholders who offered multiple viewpoints, and the school district will monitor mandates, guidance, recommendations and metrics.

NPR reports that the likelihood of death for children due to COVID-19 is between 0.00% and 0.03%, according to state-level data available. Nationally, 94,000 children were infected with COVID last week, or 15% of new cases in the country.

The Centers for Disease Control reports that at least 10 studies have confirmed the benefit of universal masking in community level analyses. These include a unified hospital system, a German city, two U.S. states, a panel of 15 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., as well as both Canada and the U.S. nationally. Following directives for universal masking, new infections fell significantly. Two of these studies and analysis of data from 200 countries that included the U.S. showed reductions in mortality. Another study showed reductions in increased hospitalizations following mask mandate implementation.

While the CDC has done studies, it has not specified studies pertaining to children only. Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marty Makary said in a July episode of "Fox and Friends" that the data is limited regarding mask use and children older than 3. 

"Look, kids who are healthy are extremely low risk and constitute such a small minority of overall cases. 0.05 percent, that's five-hundredths of one percent. Even though they're 20% of the U.S. population. We've lost all sense of risk. It's distorted. More kids die from the common cold. They need to be careful, especially if they have comorbid conditions," Dr. Makary said, as reported by Fox News. 

Despite all the data showing that children are at much lower risk of contracting COVID-19 as compared to those older and already at higher risk, the CDC still recommends masks and other safety precautions without having need to warrant such. 

Some parents want more of a say in their children's schooling, including mask mandates and curriculum.

“The two biggest issues facing our children today are critical race teachings and the removal of parental choice. Critical race theory is toxic and creates racial divide. Standing up to our school boards is especially needed when policies they implement are detrimental to our children's physical and mental health and their overreach infringers on our parental and medical rights and freedom to choose,” parent Michael Omara said about both issues. 

Some parents, and even teachers, have had enough of not having a choice, which has lead to one Illinois School district being sued over teaching critical race theory, the City Journal reported. 

A teacher in Evanston has  recently filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop Evanston/Skokie School District 65 from what she claims  is discrimination against its teachers and students on the basis of race through illegal and unconstitutional teacher training, classroom curriculum, and overall policies

In the article, Kimberly Hermann, a general counselor with Southeastern Legal Foundation, wrote, "parents and teachers across the United States need to speak up. Legislators need to uphold their oath to the Constitution. More lawsuits will no doubt be needed to stop school districts from implementing practices that turn the idea of 'equity' into a license to punish Americans because of their skin color."