On Wednesday, students at Grayslake North and Central High Schools, students announced they would walk out of class to protest mask requirements. As a result, Grayslake School District 127 canceled in person learning in favor of online classes.
Grayslake District 127 Superintendent Mikkel Storaasli said, “We support students’ right to protest, and we have no reason to believe students would have engaged in any destructive or illegal activity.” Storaasli when on to say, “we know how volatile the masking issue is and I want to ensure a safe environment for students and staff.”
On Thursday morning, students and parents gathered outside of the schools in protest and without incident, with the media in attendance.
While the number of positive cases and positivity rates have been falling since our January 9th peak, it is unfortunate for people to drop their masks early. On Wednesday, there were about 4700 new infections reported in Illinois, which is still a vdery substantial amount of community spread. Masking remains a very sound practice from a scientific and public health perspective.
Masking and vaccination is not about impinging on anyone’s freedom. It is about protecting public health in the face of dangerous pandemic which is not over.