Rock Island Today

Former Quad Cities Tea Party organizer Mike Martin fears Illinois has become its own worst enemy in the fight against COVID-19. 

“You know, children have a very small probability of getting sick from this,” Martin  said. “That's always been the case. It’s not new, but yet they want to have these bans. It’s just nobody is being rational about anything anymore.”

Martin is convinced he knows where all the commotion is coming from.

“I think that it’s coming from the teachers and teachers' unions, not from the parents,” he said. “The parents are up in arms about it. Parents don't want to see that happen. You know, there are people pulling their kids out of school left and right right now because of those mandates. And I don't blame them. I would do it if I had kids.”

Count former Senate candidate Jeanette Ward among them. Ward made the decision to leave the state after her daughter was threatened with suspension from school for not wearing a mask.

“The first day of school I had been corresponding with all members of the school board,” Ward told the Kane County Reporter. “I sent legal documents explaining that ... my daughter would not be wearing a mask.”

Ward said her daughter was turned away at the door at South Elgin High.

“She walked away,” she said. “They didn't make sure where she was going. They didn't call me. I didn't talk to the principal until 11:30 that day.”

Ward said her ordeal continued on the second day of school, when her daughter was sent to the dean’s office for again not wearing a mask. While there, she was warned she faced suspension if she returned not wearing a mask.

“It's amazing to me that kids who fight with each other with knives, beat up teachers, these kids don't get expelled and suspended,” she said. “But China, who's one of their top performers, a straight-A student, they threatened her with a school suspension.”

Ward said she has since withdrawn her daughter from the district and is now planning on leaving the state.

Meanwhile, Gov. J.B. Pritzker continues to defend his actions as part of his plan to keep residents safe, pointing to how the Centers for Disease Control is now also recommending universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to K-12 schools regardless of vaccination status.

While The American Academy of Pediatrics urges all who are eligible to be vaccinated, the organization notes that research has shown that opening schools generally does not significantly increase community transmission with masking and other safety measures in place.