Editor's note: This article has been revised from an earlier version to include a statement from Chicago Public Schools.
Chicago Public Schools should be held in contempt of court for continuing to attempt to enforce mask mandates in its schools, even after a Springfield judge entered an order declaring the way in which the mandates were imposed to be illegal, according to a new court filing in the massive action against school COVID restrictions.
On Feb. 14, attorney Tom DeVore filed suit in Sangamon County Circuit Court in Springfield, asking Judge Raylene Grischow to require the Chicago Public Schools and CPS chief executive officer Pedro Martinez to appear and explain why they should not be held in indirect civil contempt for apparently refusing to abide by the TRO entered bv Grischow.
According to the petition, filed on behalf of plaintiffs John Blahusiak, his children, and Theresa Guditis, and her children, after a week of taking no action to continue require masks, CPS administrators abruptly altered their position on Monday, apparently conflicting with Grischow’s order.
On Feb. 4, Judge Grischow entered her order, blocking enforcement of the state’s COVID school mandates. She specifically declared the “emergency rules” under which Gov. JB Pritzker had imposed the mandates to be unlawful and void.
That ruling, blocking enforcement of the COVID school mandates, came about as the result of a lawsuit filed by hundreds of parents and students across the state, against Pritzker, the Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois Department of Public Health and dozens of Illinois school districts.
CPS was among those districts specifically named as a defendant in the action, and DeVore believes the district was among those to which the TRO should have directly applied.
In a statement issued Monday, CPS disputes that interpretation.
"Based on a good faith reading of the court’s order, CPS believes that the order does not prohibit CPS from exercising its authority to continue its COVID-19 mitigation policies and procedures, including universal masking and vaccination and testing requirements for students and staff," a CPS spokesperson said in the statement.
Following Judge Grischow's ruling, CPS said an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union may allow it to continue enforcing mask mandates and other COVID restrictions, without running afoul of the judge's TRO. CPS has pointed to a deal reached in January with the CTU, after the CTU engaged in a work stoppage action that the CPS and others had, at the time, called an illegal strike.
In DeVore's petition, the plaintiffs note CPS had not attempted to enforce the masking rules against the students DeVore represents in the week following Grischow’s ruling.
But on Monday, Feb. 14, DeVore said, those children were told by administrators at Mt. Greenwood Elementary School that they must either wear a mask or leave the school.
These actions, DeVore said, amount to an attack upon the integrity and authority of the court.
“These willful actions of The Board of Education of City of Chicago school district #299, and their agents …. constitute prima facie evidence of contemptuous acts which are calculated to embarrass, hinder, or obstruct this Honorable Court in its administration of justice, and are expressly calculated to derogate from its authority and dignity,” DeVore wrote in the petition.
The petition comes as a Springfield appeals court considers an appeal filed by Pritzker and the Illinois Attorney General’s office, seeking to undo Grischow’s TRO and restore the authority claimed by Pritzker to impose the mask mandates and related school COVID restrictions and mandates. Specifically, Grishow had ruled state law should be interpreted to require school districts and public health agencies to uphold students’ and parents’ rights to due process before requiring masks and other COVID rules.
The judge ruled Pritzker had sidestepped those due process requirements in citing emergency powers when imposing the masking, testing and various vaccine requirements last fall. Further, she said the Illinois Department of Public Health had illegally delegated its authority under state law to the Illinois State Board of Education and school districts to enforce school COVID rules.
Following the ruling, a growing number of school districts across the state have switched from policies requiring masks and mandatory COVID tests, to so-called “mask optional” or “mask recommended” status.
Several more large suburban districts, for instance, including Naperville District 203, switched to “mask optional” or “mask recommended” policies over the weekend, after their legal counsel advised them the appellate court is not acting as quickly as the Pritzker administration had hoped and believed it would to restore the mandates.
Pritzker’s appeal remains pending.
CPS said it is also awaiting the results of that appeal.
"CPS believes the court’s ruling does not impact the District’s authority to continue to implement our proven COVID-19 safety mitigation protocols," CPS said in its Monday statement. "The District is committed to ensuring the safety of students and staff as we await the Appellate Court’s decision regarding the appeal."