Will County Gazette

Veteran state Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) is speaking out against what she sees as bureaucratic overreach in the ongoing mask mandate debate.

“During our JCAR (Joint Committee on Administrative Rules) hearing, I voiced my serious concerns with ISBE's (Illinois State Board of Education) continuous overreach of authority when it comes to the governor's mask mandates in schools, particularly in how they have treated nonpublic schools differently and denying them their basic right of due process,” Rezin tweeted. “After some deliberation, the members of JCAR encouraged ISBE to place all policy and guidance in rule and recommended ISBE provide an update to the Committee within 30 days,” she added in another post.

Rezin isn’t the only Republican lawmaker calling on the state’s JCAR to take a stand against Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s masking mandates.

“JCAR has oversight responsibilities,” Sen. Don DeWitte (R-St. Charles) posted on Facebook. “It is our job to protect the public from arbitrary agency enforcement of guidance and policy.”

Pritzker’s school mandate also extends to teachers and staffers. He has also imposed a general indoor mask mandate that includes those over the age of 2.

To date, at least 47 school districts, including Durand Community Unit School District 322, have been placed on probation over not adhering to the universal masking mandate the governor imposed just as schools across the state were set to reopen for in-person learning after months of having their doors closed.

Of that number, nearly half have already reversed course and have indicated they plan to impose a mandatory mask mandate, including Durand CUSD 322. Those still on the probation list face penalties that could include having their state funding stripped and not being allowed to take part in sanctioned athletic events.

The latest mandates come as several studies have taken issue with the overall effectiveness of face coverings and school closures.

A report by the Center for Biosecurity Disease, titled “Mitigation Measures in the Control of Pandemic Influenza,” concludes “the ordinary surgical mask does little to prevent inhalation of small droplets of influenza virus (because) the pores in the mask become blocked by moisture from breathing, and the airstream simply diverts around the mask.”

And at the University of Illinois-Chicago, researchers cited studies that found that "cloth masks and face coverings are likely to have limited impact on lowering COVID-19 transmission because they have minimal ability to prevent the emission of small particles ... and offer limited personal protection with respect to small particle inhalation."