Kane County Reporter

Jeanette Ward says her family is leaving the state after her daughter was threatened with suspension from school for not wearing a mask.

“The first day of school I had been corresponding with all members of the school board,” Ward said. “I sent legal documents explaining that ... my daughter would not be wearing a mask.”

Still, Ward, who previously ran for the state Senate in the 25th District, said her daughter was turned away at the door at South Elgin High.

“She walked away,” she said. “They didn't make sure where she was going. They didn't call me. I didn't talk to the principal until 11:30 that day.”

Ward said her daughter returned to school for a second day without a mask and was sent to the dean's office where she was told she would face suspension if she returned a third day not wearing a mask.

“It's amazing to me that kids who fight with each other with knives, beat up teachers, these kids don't get expelled and suspended,” she said. “But China, who's one of their top performers, a straight-A student, they threatened her with a school suspension.”

Ward said she has since withdrawn her daughter from the district and is now planning on leaving the state.

Ward said not enough parents are protesting the mask mandate. “There's just not enough people who will stand up to this stuff.”

Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski has long accused Democrats, led by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, of governing by fear when it comes to the virus.

"It's always fear and confusion,” he said in a Cities929.com interview shortly after Gov. J.B. Pritzker imposed a universal mask mandate on public and private school students.

“There's a lot of information that the public needs in order to start operating normally because we're a year and a half into this,” he said. “We've got to start getting back to some normalcy. And the way they present the data doesn't allow us to really understand or trust them. A lot of people don't trust what's coming out of the officials, you know, either at the CDC or at the local level."

The governor’s executive order also requires masks for teachers and staff at pre-kindergarten through 12th grade schools regardless of vaccination status, and state employees working in congregate facilities such as long-term care facilities and veterans' homes.

While Pritzker continues to defend his actions as part of his plan to keep residents safe, pointing to how the Centers for Disease Control is now also recommending universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to K-12 schools regardless of vaccination status, critics like Dabrowski point to it as just the latest example of the governor abusing his power in acting like a dictator.

"School districts, they can be making their own decisions about whether to open or not based on local COVID conditions, what the public wants,” Dabrowski said. “But instead, we've got another edict coming down from the governor, and that just doesn't make sense anymore. We've had 10 deaths under the age of 17 in Illinois, and most of those kids had had some serious health issues. So for the normal, healthy kid ... it's more risky to send your kids out on his bicycle or to the lake than it is to fear COVID at this point."