District 211 is the largest high school district in Illinois with 12,000 students enrolled. Of these 12,000 students, it is our responsibility to consider the vast diversity of our families and children. As residents of Illinois and as humans worried about the safety of our families, we are concerned about the health of everyone in this district. We have mandates for everything else, mandates for seatbelts, mandates for the measles vaccines, mandates for general check-ups, and the mandate of masks is crucial, as proven by numerous credited sources, to the mitigation of the spread of COVID-19. Consider our elderly, consider the opportunities our students have lost because of the pandemic, consider the health of your neighbors and sign this petition to:

1. Have D211 reinforce the mask mandate

2. Reverse the lifting of the exclusion policy for students in close contact to those with positive COVID-19 test results

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The email from our superintendent stated, "The safety and health of all students and staff remains a priority, and we are grateful for the innovation and flexibility of those in our schools. We will continue to update you if requirements change in the future."

For our safety and health to 'remain' a priority, please acknowledge that over-preparing and over-protecting our student body and staff with a mask mandate is one of many complicated steps in mitigating this still very rampant pandemic.

Our local area is still at a high transmission rate and new variants are still popping up despite our efforts over the last year.

This pandemic is not over but it has been getting less tangible recently, so to lift the mask mandate now is to sign off on any hopes of ending this pandemic.

Carefulness costs you nothing. Carelessness may cost you your life.

This is not an issue of government strong-arming, nor an issue of state's rights, nor an issue of an overreach of power from the Governor. The requirement of masks is one of many steps in the fight against one of the most debilitating crises of the 21st century. And D211 has the choice to continue the mask mandate no matter what power the Governor may or may not have.

Sign not just for yourself, but for every person around you whose lives and families could be dependent on you to be safe.

Be smart. Be considerate. And don't let this pandemic beat us.

Beat the pandemic.