Lake County Gazette

Illinois Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich) slammed Governor J.B. Pritzker for planning to lift his statewide mask mandate for bars, restaurants and offices, while doubling down on his demand children continue covering their faces in schools, indefinitely.

"The Governor has ditched his thinly veiled effort to follow the ‘science’ regarding mask mandates and is now plainly in pursuit of a naked power grab and is using our kids to do it," McConchie said. "I don't believe for a minute that the Governor would force masks on kids if he wasn't locked in a court battle to keep his power over us and our children. His hypocrisy is rich."

"The Governor has clearly been ruling on whatever he thinks is politically beneficial at the time rather than what is best for our communities, families, and children," he said.

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 Lake County, mask-optional districts include Lake Zurich CUSD 95, Antioch CHSD 117, Libertyville SD 70, Lake Forest SD 67 and Lake Forest CHSD 115.

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."