Metro East Sun

Illinois State Senator Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) said Governor J.B. Pritzker should be ashamed for continuing to "force our defenseless children to mask," accusing him of punishing the "safest among us" for his own political gain.

"A partial end to the mask mandate that keeps the safest among us – our children – masked?," Plummer said. "Shame on Governor Pritzker, the State of Illinois, and decision makers at schools that continue to force our defenseless children to mask. What’s happening in Illinois is happening almost nowhere else. The first restrictions removed should be restrictions on our children."

"We are only beginning to see the damage being done to our young people – damage that was predicted and that will continue to become more apparent and more tragic as time passes," he said. "Pritzker is making decisions based on the only type of science he cares about – political science. I think the entire state is now recognizing that none of this is about true science."

Pritzker announced Wednesday afternoon that he could lift the mask mandate for places of business on Feb. 28, but that he would still require them for schools. That's five days after a Sangamon County judge declared his statewide "emergency" school mandate school rules "null and void."

“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.

Since, more than 200 public school districts across Illinois and most Catholic ones-- outside of those in Cook and Lake Counties-- have already announced they are "mask optional."

In Madison County, mask-optional districts include Triad CUSD 2, Highland CUSD 5, and Roxana CUSD 1. Also, Father McGivney H.S. in Glen Carbon was the first Catholic school in Illinois to announce a mask-optional policy.

Edwardsville High School Principal Steve Stuart, a mask advocate who has refused to lift the mask mandate there, was photographed mask-less in the school cafeteria this week, attracting the ire of anti-mask parents.

Dan Montgomery, President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, said Saturday that students going mask-less is "threat to public health" and that it prevents "normalcy at school."

We believe that what the judge ordered today is legally faulty and a threat to public health and, most importantly, a threat to keeping Illinois schools open for in-person learning," Montgomery said. "Our children and their families need certainty and some normalcy at school, not legal wrangling managed by a small minority of citizens."