Lake County Gazette

Parents in Lake Forest School Districts 115 and 67 have asked the Board of Education to "consider the desires of the community" when it comes to deciding whether or not students should mask up while attending classes.

Four of Jeff Brincat's six children are in the Lake Forest school system. Brincat said he'd like to see board members take action.

"This is the time that you expect to see a leadership by the people, that they understand their role in policymaking as a regulatory body. But it seems to me a lot of the actions I've seen out of the boards up here, it's almost as if they feel that they're in a booster club rather than a regulatory body that was voted in," Brincat told the Lake County Gazette.

And he's not the only one who has criticized school board members for following Gov. J.B. Pritzker's (D-IL) mandate requiring K-12 students, teachers and staff to wear a mask. Alyssa Sinclair, a parent, asked the board to defend the freedoms of children in the district during the Sept. 13 District 115 school board meeting.

"There is no law for these kids to have to wear these masks. Please have the courage to fight for these kids' freedoms," Sinclair said during the meeting. "Please do your job. You took an oath to do it. I am asking you respectfully. I am asking you kindly. This is a free country. There is no law written that says our kids need to wear these."

During the summer Lake Forest Superintendent Matthew Montgomery wrote Pritzker a letter, asking him to leave the decision about mask requirements up to each individual district, Fox 23 Chicago reported. 

"Mitigation strategies are best determined by the people most closely serving our students, staff, and families," Montgomery said in the letter, according to Fox 23 Chicago. "I firmly believe it is in the best interest of our entire school community to return local control to our Illinois school districts."

According to Fox 23 Chicago, Montgomery came to the Lake Forest School District after leading a school in Ohio where he said in-school learning was never halted.

University of Illinois at Chicago-affiliated professors Dr. Lisa Brosseau and Dr. Margaret Sietsema wrote a commentary for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy that said in part, "cloth masks and face coverings are likely to have limited impact on lowering COVID-19 transmission, because they have minimal ability to prevent the emission of small particles."

However, in April 2020 the authors said they supported the public wearing face coverings when mandated in close contact with people, but to not count on cloth masks for protection.