The Oak Lawn High School Board has kicked off one of its elected members, who is also a Republican running for Congress, saying he violated his oath of office and state law by suing Gov. JB Pritzker and the school district over the decision last fall to reimpose mask mandates in schools.
Now, the former District 229 school board member, Rob Cruz, says he is considering whether to sue the district, as he asserts the board may have overstepped the law, and violated his constitutional rights in the process.
On Wednesday, Jan. 12, the Oak Lawn High School District 229 Board of Education, in a special session, voted to “announce a vacancy” on its board, effectively removing Cruz from his seat.
The decision is the latest step in a months long tussle between Cruz and his former fellow board members over the school district’s and the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cruz has consistently opposed restrictions related to the pandemic, such as those imposed repeatedly since March 2020 by Pritzker, using emergency powers he claimed under the state’s disaster response law.
Cruz was elected by voters in and around Oak Lawn to the District 229 Board in April 2021.
In the summer of 2021, as school districts across the state laid plans to return students to full-time in-person learning, Pritzker indicated he may leave it to individual school districts to decide whether to require students to wear masks indoors at nearly all times during the school day.
Pritzker, however, reversed himself on that, as COVID case counts halted their downward descent upon the arrival of the so-called COVID Delta variant. Instead, Pritzker slapped another indoor mask mandate on all schools, claiming it was needed to slow the spread of COVID.
As Cruz tells it, he requested in July that District 229 discuss whether to go along with the governor’s mandate, or set its own policy regarding masks.
The majority of the board opted to merely comply with guidance issued by the state and local public health authorities.
Cruz then filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court, before the case was removed to federal court. A federal judge dismissed Cruz’s lawsuit in December.
In the intervening months, Cruz also announced he would seek election to the U.S. House of Representatives within Illinois’ 6th Congressional District. He seeks to unseat the Democratic incumbent, U.S. Rep. Sean Casten.
On Jan. 5, District 229 administrators informed Cruz that the board intended to hold a special meeting one week later, with the intention of removing him from office.
In laying out the charges against him, the District 229 board asserted Cruz should be removed because he had violated his oath office, school board policy and the Illinois School Code on “multiple” occasions. The charges specifically referenced his lawsuit, which had named Oak Lawn District 229 as a defendant.
The school board asserted this had cost the district more than $25,000.
In a speech during the special meeting on Jan. 12, Cruz asserted the board chose to insert itself into the fight, when their attorneys, with the firm of Odelson and Sterk, moved to intervene in the litigation Cruz says he originally filed only against Pritzker and the Illinois State Board of Education.
Further, Cruz asserted the effort to remove him from the board was instigated as political retribution for his decision to publicly challenge Pritzker and sue to challenge Pritzker’s school mask mandates.
In his speech to the board on Jan. 12, Cruz said the action has been taken merely to silence him for his opposition to the COVID-related mandates imposed by the state and the school district, and is “rooted in a desire to destroy all those who disagree.”
Being elected to the school board does not mean he is required to surrender his right to political speech, nor his right to sue as an individual.
Cruz noted he has not been charged or convicted of any crime, or of taking any action against a child or student at Oak Lawn Community High School, both of which could be grounds for removal.
In a statement published to their web site, District 229 claimed Cruz’s opposition to Pritzker and his political views were not the reason for his removal. Rather, the district again asserted Cruz was removed “due to violations of his Oath of Office, School Board Policy, and state laws.”
During his speech on Jan. 12, Cruz warned the district not to act to remove him, saying he believed the board’s action would exceed its authority under state law, and the charges could amount to defamation.
He warned his removal would “place the school district in more legal jeopardy.”
In response to questions from The Cook County Record, Cruz said he plans "to explore all avenues legally to ensure my right to due process."
"The Illinois constitution has a process and we will look to that for relief," Cruz said.
"I will continue to be vocal about this issue and look to our supporters of freedom to bring awareness to this issue locally, statewide and nationally."