West Cook News

Oak Park Health Department Director Theresa Chapple-McGruder is sticking fast to her overturned decision to cancel Oak Park & River Forest High School’s extracurricular activities for the remainder of the year.

Chapple-McGruder met with the OPRF District 200 School Board at a meeting held on Dec. 7 and defended her decision to cancel all extracurricular actives for the reminder of the year at the school. 

“(There) were all the kind of indicators that we looked at that led to us needing to put in mitigations into place to stop this from happening,” she said.

Chapple-McGruder is an epidemiologist who was appointed to her role with the village in April of this year.

As part of her position she was given the authority by the Village of Oak Park to single-handedly close institutions or businesses if she felt it would reduce Covid spread in the municipality. She called off sports and the school’s winter theatre performance, as well as a bevy of other activities, after 17 students at the school tested positive for COVID-19.

Ross Lissuzzo, a River Forest resident, spoke during public comment at the meeting, which was held on Zoom. He said Chapple-McGruder's shutting down of sports is driving more parents to look to leave OPRF.

“These (meetings) are often avoidable crisis type meetings. It's why more families are losing faith in the direction of opening up and are looking for school alternatives. The family rally this past Saturday was a good indicator of such a growing movement,” Lissuzzo said.

Lissuzzo added that the school district should get back to actually teaching students.

“Our students they saw right through the nonsense came together and said enough integrity and trust do matter. The real reason for my comments tonight is that our school is failing at its core mission. That's educating our kids and allowing them to grow. ISBE (Illinois State Board of Education) just released the annual educational outcomes, and results are dismal pre and post COVID,” he said.

The action quickly received more than 2,000 signatures in a change.org petition.

Chapple-McGruder said the increased number of cases started before Thanksgiving and continued.  She said the school’s increased mitigation efforts were increased unsuccessfully prior to her decision to shut down extracurriculars at the school.

Chapple-McGruder said that 76 percent of students have already been vaccinated, but that the vaccines aren't working as well as they once did. 

“Here was a concern that we are in,” she said. “Six to seven months for some of your students post-vaccine, and we're worrying about the vaccine's ability to still have the same level of immunity that it had before.”  

Chapple-McGruder is now advocating for booster shots at the school.

“I am hopeful that that's something that may happen by sometime in January, maybe closer to the end of January. There's rumblings about that and keep an eye on it. And as soon as we know, we will be hosting clinics to get our people under 18 boosted as soon as possible,” she said.

Chapple-McGruder faced off against a group of angry parents at Saturday’s protest who erupted into chants of “Let them play!” after she told them the cancellation would be in effect.

“The way that you get to play is to let me finish,” Chapple-McGruder said at the protest.

School Board President Ralph Martire — a lobbyist who runs the teacher's union backed "think tank" the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability — provided cover for Chapple-McGruder.

“It's inexcusable, the behavior that's been directed your way. You're an asset to the community. And I for one, and I believe my fellow board members denounce that behavior,” School Board President Ralph Martire said. “We should have a situation where even if people disagree strongly with any recommendations or positions taken by anyone in a in a position of authority, they could do so in a way that is somewhat professional. And our lack of being civil in civic society is a real problem.”

Martire was also caught up in his own scandal earlier this year when he and another school board member were caught on a hot mic discussing how to best use public bodies to advocate for socialism.  

Chapple-McGruder’s ban on extracurricular actives lasted only three days before it was overturned. 

The Village of Oak Park and Chapple-McGruder are now requiring all students to undergo routine saliva testing and wear KN95 masks that will be provided by the Village of Oak Park