Salem Community High School will go mask recommended starting with school on Wednesday and the boy’s basketball game Tuesday night.
Superintendent Dr. Brad Detering made the announcement. The district had been mandating the masks.
Detering wanted to update the district’s metrics on positive cases after three e-learning days at the end of last week due to the snow before making a decision on how they would proceed following a Friday court decision that found Governor Pritzker had exceeded his authority in issuing the mask mandate.
Detering says the district found they only had two positive COVID cases remaining along with one person out due to close contact. As a result, the district’s plan adopted in August indicated the school should be at the mask recommended stage.
Judge Raylene Grischow denied a request in the temporary restraining order in the court case last Friday to give the case class certification for all students in the 146 school districts named as defendants in the lawsuit. However, she added since she had declared the emergency rules of the Illinois Department of Public Health and Illinois State Board of Education void, non-named plaintiffs and school districts throughout the state may govern themselves accordingly. The state attorney general has made an immediate appeal of the Judge’s decision but so far the Appellate Court has taken no action.
South Central, Odin, and Carlyle Schools, which were all named as defendants, announced on Monday they would go mask optional for all students. Patoka had taken the action before the court decision.
