Parents Demand Principal Who UnMasked Kids Be Reinstated

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — For the second time in a week, parents returned to Queen of Martyrs in Evergreen Park Sunday morning to demand that Doc Mathius be reinstated as the parish elementary school. Mathius was placed on administrative leave last week for enacting a “mask optional” policy without the consent of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Hours after Mathius was placed on administrative leave, the Archdiocese reversed its position on mandatory face coverings in Lake County and most suburban Cook County schools. The shift in policy came in response to a downstate judge’s ruling blocking Gov. J.B. Pritzer’s state-wide mask mandate. Mathius’s job remains in limbo.

Parents at Queen of Martyrs were supported by parishioners from other nearby parishes, where face masks are still required at city Catholic schools.

>>> EP PODCAST: A Conversation With Doc Mathius

A grandmother of nine wore a sign on her back, that read: “Cardinal Cupich, come out, come out wherever you are. Mundelein??? Rome??? Thought Chicago was your home.”

“I think [Mathius] is fabulous,” said the grandmother, who gave her name as Carol. “I think because of Doc, all the suburban Catholic schools are unmasked. “Everyone except Chicago.”

Carol said some of her grandchildren, attend St. John Fisher in Mount Greenwood.

“I think the mandate has been terrible,” she said. “I have four grandchildren from pre-school through first grade, who have never been unmasked the whole time they’ve been at school. They’ve never seen a teacher without a mask on. I want them to be able to smile at the friends and teachers.”

“Cardinal Cupich needs to rethink [face masks in school] and where is he,” Carol added, referring to the archbishop’s travels to Rome and Croatia earlier this month.

Sunday’s rally was held before the 10:30 Mass at Queen of Martyrs. The protestors were told not to block parishioners entering the church for Mass. The rally was attended by candidates gathering signatures to put their names on the June primary ballot. A light board truck with rotating Bible verses and slogans against tyranny parked across from the church on the Chicago side of 103rd Street.

“We just want masks optional for our kids and to have Doc reinstated for doing the right thing,” a St. Cajetan mother told Parch. “We’re frustrated that the [Archdiocese’s order] did not apply to Chicago Catholic schools, but we’re not surprised.”

The rally was organized by Parents for Choice of the Chicago Archdiocese, that advocates for parental choice as it applies to mask mandates, vaccinations and quarantines for healthy children.

“There is always a concern of COVID much like concerns of catching the flu or anything else,” said Andrew Tourville, one of the organizers. ”We’re more concerned about the mental heath of our children.”

Tourville said face masks have been a hindrance for his daughter, who attends Queen of Martyrs School.

“The really big issue with my daughter, she’s in kindergarten,” he said. “She’s tiny, her teacher can’t hear her when she speaks across a large room with a face covering.”

Tourville claimed that parents have been trying to speak to the Archdiocese about their principal’s status, but no one has gotten back to them, nor has Greg Richmond, the superintendent of Chicago’s Catholic schools.

In an interview with Chris Lanuti on EP Podcast, Mathius said the tipping point for him came a month ago, when he failed to recognize one of his kindergartners who had her mask off momentarily in the hallway.

"I looked at her and didn't know who she was," Mathius said, choking up. "She put her mask on, and I knew her immediately. I said, 'oh, dear, God.' In addition to everything else I'm hearing and reading, something's got to change."

Calling any impact he may have had on swaying the Archdiocese to reverse its stance on masks in schools, "coincidental," Matthias told EP Podcast he's watched some students in his small Evergreen Park Catholic school struggle in the pandemic, including difficulties with speech, and social-emotional problems.

While not pointing fingers at the "good folks in the Archdiocese," Mathius felt, in his opinion, that the Archdiocese was taking a "cookie cutter" approach to its mask policy.

"I felt I had to do something," he said. "As educators, they should understand that every situation individually and collectively is different. I thought the mistake that [the Archdiocese] made was not giving each school the autonomy to make a call for their community and their special demographic. I think they failed in that regard, I may be wrong."

Last Sunday, when the Archdiocese sent a letter to parents stating that Catholic schools would continue to follow the state's mask mandate after the judge's ruling on a lawsuit filed by 140 public school districts, Mathius told EP Podcast that he reached "critical mass." He held on to the letter he had started composing that evening and polished it on Monday.

For reasons he would not disclose in the interview, Matthias sent his email blast to parents on Tuesday morning. As he predicted in his letter, retribution was swift, and he was placed on administrative leave. Now, his future as principal of Queen of Martyrs hangs in the balance.

Asked by Lanuti if he wanted to return to the school, Mathius called it a hypothetical.

"Gospel values," the embattled principal said after some thought. "Forgiveness, redemption, love."