South Central Reporter

With a hearing for a preliminary injunction now scheduled for Sept. 27, an Illinois Circuit Court Judge has issued a temporary restraining order banning the Carlyle Community School District 1 from blocking a student from class over concerns she was in contact with a person who has since tested positive for COVID-19.

In rendering his order against Carlyle and Superintendent Annie Gray, Clinton County Judge Don Sheafor reasoned “a school district can’t keep a student from attending school unless there’s a quarantine order issued.”

Attorney Thomas DeVore served as counsel for parent Ronald Peters in the proceedings, establishing early on that the school district made the decision to ban the student without consulting with either the Health Department, the student involved or the parents.

As part of his order, Sheafor further asserted the district is “enjoined from excluding [the unidentified student] from the facilities for being an individual public health risk unless an order of quarantine issues against [the student] from the local health department as required by the Illinois State Board of Education.”

DeVore is hoping the ruling comes to be one that stands across the state and in every instance where the debate continues to rage.

“The court was clear that due process was being violated by the school district as an order of quarantine issued by the health department was necessary to suspend the children’s right to an in-person education,” he said. “The judge said we have a dictatorship if due process is not afforded to people.”

At the start of the school year, Carlyle joined other schools in defying the governor’s universal mask mandate. But soon after being placed on probation and facing the possibility of having state funding stripped away, school board members had a change of heart.

Just two weeks into the school year, reports are as many as 150 students are already in quarantine with close to 30 testing positive for COVID-19.

With the surging numbers, some parents predict the growing number of legal filings may be far from over. 

One parent, who insists her son is healthy but now in quarantine, with no academic instruction from the school, told KSDK a group of parents has already hired an attorney and plan to sue the district over the mask mandate.