D229 Board Member Files Second 'Face Mask' Suit Against District

OAK LAWN, IL — A Dist. 229 school board member who sued Gov. J.B. Pritzker and State School Superintendent Carmen Ayala last month over concerns about the face mask mandate has withdrawn his lawsuit and refiled it in Sangamon County. The new complaint names Oak Lawn Community High School Dist. 229 as a defendant, in addition to Pritzker and Ayala.

Last month, Robert Cruz, who was elected to the Dist. 229 school board in April, sued Pritzker “individually and in his official capacity” as an elected school board member, on grounds that Pritzker overreached his constitutional authority when issuing his executive order requiring K-12 students to wear face coverings inside school buildings.

Supt. Dr. Michael Riordan and D229 Board President Robert Loehr responded swiftly, informing residents that the district was not a party to the lawsuit and that no public funds had been spent or allocated in support of Cruz’s litigation. Elected board members from government bodies in the state of Illinois are prohibited from filing lawsuits in their official capacity without discussion and action from other board members.

During a special meeting on Aug. 23, the district’s legal counsel, Burt Odelson, warned board members that Cruz’s lawsuit placed the district in “dire, legal jeopardy” by giving the appearance of defying the governor’s mandate for face masks in school buildings. By doing so, Odelson added, Dist. 229 could potentially lose accreditation and state funding.

Cruz’s lawsuit also drew harsh criticism from fellow board members for what they claimed was “an unauthorized lawsuit.” D229 board members took action to remove references to the school district from Cruz's lawsuit, and passed a resolution, 5-0, that the district would fully comply with COVID-19 guidelines and state mandates. Cruz abstained from voting, and board member Judith Ott was not present at the special meeting.

Cruz’s original lawsuit was misfiled as a “verified” complaint in the wrong Cook County Court division, but was immediately transferred by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office to the chancery division of Cook County Circuit Court.

Cruz withdrew his first lawsuit, and on Sept. 2, refiled a second 125-page “complaint” in Sangamon County's 7th Judicial District in Springfield.

This time, Cruz filed his complaint as an “adult resident of Cook County” on behalf of his child enrolled in an Oak Lawn public elementary school. Joining Cruz is co-plaintiff Scot Jones, who filed on behalf of his son, who attends Oak Lawn Community High School.

During a town hall meeting in August to discuss the high school’s back-to-school COVID safety plan, when Riordan announced that the district would be participating in the Shield Illinois saliva-based screening program for COVID-19, Jones asked what the school intended to with his son’s DNA.

“Do you know? Do you care? The governor is sitting there laughing while you’re going to hell,” Jones said. “Don’t think God isn’t watching.”

In addition to government overreach, Cruz and Jones maintain in the new lawsuit that the school board “capitulated” once the district’s financial status was threatened to “curry favor with the governor and [Illinois State Board of Education], violating the rights of all OLCHS students and parents.”

The complaint also describes surgical masks as “akin to a medical device,” thereby requiring parental consent.

“No such consent was allowed by having the parents choose whether of to require their child to wear a mask,” the plaintiffs state.

Cruz and Jones further argued that OLCHS never implemented similar policy relating to influenza, “a virus responsible for more deaths in school-age children than COVID-19.” The high school district also passed the resolution without any consideration for the “known negative effects posed by children wearing masks for eight hours a day.”

At the Sept. 15 D229 board meeting, Loehr stated, “The District 229 Board of Education, through our attorneys, is moving to expeditiously and assertively dismiss the pending litigation. We fully expect to be successful. Because it is pending litigation, I will be making no further comment.”

Odelson said that it is unlikely that Dist. 229 will be able to recoup legal costs.