District 113 Pauses Mask Mandate, Waiting To Hear From Attorneys

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Administers at Deerfield and Highland Park high schools stopped enforcing the district's indoor mask mandate Friday.

Township High School District 113 Superintendent Bruce Law said he made the decision to suspend enforcement of the mandate after learning about a state appeals court ruling issued in the early morning hours.

A three-judge panel in the 4th Appellate District court dismissed the Pritzker administration's appeal to a temporary restraining order in the Austin v. Pritzker court case that voided certain emergency orders.

"I made the decision not to enforce the mask requirement today because I was unsure that we had the legal authority to do so and because I was concerned that teachers would be unable to teach if they spent the day addressing different responses to this latest turn of events," Law said Friday afternoon in a message to families.

"The decision not to enforce wearing masks is not the same thing as declaring masks are optional. I do not have the authority to make that decision. My responsibility is to ensure that schools run smoothly, and today’s decision aimed to make that more likely," he said.

According to the superintendent, an announcement was made over the loudspeaker about the new policy and both Deerfield and Highland Park high school were running smoothly and normally, with most students and staff wearing masks.

Law said it would have been ideal to have an interpretation of the order from the district's lawyers first. At 10:30 a.m., he said, he was told that the attorneys were finalizing their opinion.

But, the superintendent, he had still not received an interpretation by the time he was writing the message, which was received shortly before 2 p.m.

"Things are changing quickly in districts all around us and some parents are understandably concerned about increased risk from not enforcing the mask mandate today," Law said.

The superintendent said administrators were consulting with the Lake County Health Department and had been advised to continue tracking the number of cases in the school. He noted that there were four positive tests out of 925 completed on Monday, compared with 74 results out of 1,128 tests on Jan. 3. He noted more than 98 of staff and 90 percent of students are vaccinated.

Law said he would issue further communication after hearing back from the district's attorneys. He said the District 113 school board planned to consider "action on our mitigations" at a meeting on Tuesday.

"I apologize for how these events have unfolded," he said.