Lake County Gazette

The Special Education District of Lake County is putting kids in masks again after only two reported cases of COVID-19, a parent reports.  

"My son attends a special education school run by the Special Education District of Lake County (SEDOL)," a parent said in a message shared on Twitter. "Today they began forcing all students to wear masks again due to two positive cases. I thought the parent lawsuit made it illegal for schools to do this to students any more. Can you please tell me what the status is of that lawsuit?"

The school, serving Lake County’s neediest students, has strict masking rules that are triggered depending on how many cases of COVID-19 are detected.  

"A SEDOL building will shift to a situational masking requirement for a minimum of 10 days if there is one positive student or staff case in that building," the school’s masking policies read. "When situational masking is implemented, masking is required for all students, staff and visitors in all areas where contact tracing determines the positive case was present. Such areas potentially include, but are not limited to, classrooms, hallways and lunchrooms."  

The school isn’t the only one moving to an odd intermittent masking requirement. Sunset Ridge School District 29 recently noted it was masking sixth graders only, North Cook News reported.

"A SEDOL building will shift to a universal masking requirement for a minimum of 10 days if there are two or more positive cases in that building," the policy further reads. "Universal masking means that masking is required for all students, staff and visitors at all times when present in that building or during SEDOL sponsored events in that building." 

Masking has largely been a thing of the past since a judge ruled Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s mask policies unconstitutional. Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Raylene Grischow’s 30-page ruling said Pritzker’s emergency school guidelines on masks and tests through the Illinois Department of Public Health were "null and void." She said the governor and his agencies were imposing rules on students without their consent. 

"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. However, local districts enacted their own policies in the wake of the ruling, The Center Square reported.

The move goes against the CDC’s latest indoor masking recommendations. Data suggests masking is ineffective except when those wearing masks use mini-respirators like properly fit N95 and KN95 masks. Even then, mask-wearing has been noted as inappropriate. 

"Does that Face Mask Really Protect You?", a 2010 research article by Dr. Larry E. Bowen of the Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, fit various types of masks on a mannequin to study their effectiveness, and found that wearing surgical, bandana and dust masks offer "very little protection" and concluded that "wearing these face masks may produce a false sense of protection."

A University of Illinois at Chicago study found that "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" and that such "offer limited personal protection with respect to small particle inhalation.