Illinois mandates that students will start school year wearing masks

Du Quoin Unit District 300's hope to maintain local control over when students have to mask up is gone, at least temporarily, now that the state is mandating all public and private students will start the year wearing them.

Du Quoin Superintendent Matt Hickam said Thursday that he has been watching the rise in Perry County COVID cases - and the fact that those cases appear to be spread evenly across the county - and said it is likely he would have mandated mask wearing himself at the beginning of the year. Teachers report to work on Friday, Aug. 13 and students return on Tuesday, Aug. 17.

But Hickam said local control would have given his team the flexibility to decide on wearing/not wearing masks based on local developments, not statewide developments, and he is disappointed not to have that ability.

"The plan we had laid out, I would have been looking at data today, tomorrow and next week and then would have made the decision as to whether we needed to bring in masks ourselves," Hickam said. "Odds are, unless something miraculous would have happened I would have said we'll start year wearing masks."

Hickam said he is hoping that the state will relax its control once the number of cases starts to shrink.

"I'm hopeful when cases start to go back down - and they will - we can go back to more local control," he added.

Even with masks, Hickam said the start to the 2021-22 school year is so much better than a year ago - when there was no sports and activities, when students had a combination of in-class and remote learning.

"We're in school (full-time)," Hickam said. "This is a whole lot better than last year, and if masks are part of it we just have to deal with it, for now."

Hickam said he knows there are parents and employees who have their own opinions on the effectiveness of masks. "My message to my administrators, my philosophy, is we have to look at the position we're in as school officials," he said. "We've got people who are experts in matters of health, which I am not. I have to defer to the expertise that's been provided to me."

The superintendent said he was surprised but not shocked by the mandates. The state has been heavily criticized over the mitigations imposed on schools during the first wave of the pandemic, and he said he got the impression they were satisfied to wash their hands and turn over decision-making to individual schools.

Still, other than a mandate that masks must be worn at all indoor sports games and practices, the masks are the only major change to what educators expected at the start of the year. Masks will be worn by everyone, vaccinated and unvaccinated alike, until the state either lifts the mandate or permits each school district to govern itself.

"I know there will be more resistance and I understand where people are coming from," Hickam said.

He said the state is also offering an opportunity for unvaccinated students who are exposed to the coronavirus to avoid a lengthy quarantine, by being tested as many as four times during the incubation period.

Hickam said he has already spoken with Marshall Browning Hospital, which has agreed to help with those tests.

Vaccinated students who are exposed to COVID but who do not show symptoms, will not have to quarantine.

Hickam added he will compose a note to all District 300 families that lays out the latest information.