On February 6, CUSD 200 Superintendent Jeffrey Schuler and the CUSD School Board voted to adhere to a recent Illinois ruling to remove the requirement of masks for students and staff, as well as some other rollbacks that will inevitably lead to disastrous affects.

Both CUSD 200 high schools, Wheaton North and Wheaton-Warrenville South, have 281 and 223 student cases respectively. This accounts for over ONE IN TEN students at each high school. 

Source for CUSD 200 COVID statistics - 
https://www.cusd200.org/coviddashboard

This is, in a word, unacceptable. At a time where COVID is rapidly spreading across America through the Omicron variant, at over 120,000 CASES A DAY as of February 5 2022, why are we overturning a rule that requires masks, a thing that has proven to be OVERWHELMINGLY effective in slowing the spread of this virus?

Masks are the most basic form of protection against COVID, a virus that is especially threatening to high-risk students and staff. We are risking people’s health, safety, and lives.

We feel unsafe, we feel unheard, and we feel like we are not being listened to. We are tired of feeling the way we are feeling. We will exert pressure until either this insane ruling is overturned by the Illinois State Government, or until we are finally listened to, and the health and safety of every student and staff member is treated with basic decency.