Dr. Theresa Chapple-McGruder. Chapple-McGruder, the director of the Oak Park Health Department | Oak Park Health Department
Dr. Theresa Chapple-McGruder. Chapple-McGruder, the director of the Oak Park Health Department | Oak Park Health Department
Village of Oak Park Public Health Director Theresa Chapple said state rules governing K-12 schools allow them to individually decide how restrictive to be on masking students.
"Paul Stephanides (the village lawyer) found the (state) rules that regulate schools have a less restrictive masks mandate," she wrote in an email to a Fenwick parent, Matthew Scharpf of Berwyn, posted to Facebook. "(The Illinois State Board of Education) allows for minimum masks exclusions at the discretion of the school."
"Please reach out to the school to see if their rules allow for an exclusion in this case," Chapple wrote.
Scharpf was asking Chapple for an opinion as to whether Fenwick High School performers in the school's Banua event this weekend would be required to wear masks.
Fenwick President Richard Peddicord and Principal Peter Groom have strictly enforced mask mandates at the school.
Students at Fenwick have reported Covid protocols have drastically changed their daily lives and made it more difficult to achieve.
The school has been less draconian enforcing masking when it comes to outsiders, but not for students whose risk of illness from COVID-19 is extremely low.
When Fenwick’s indoor homecoming dance was cancelled last fall but its largest annual fundraiser was allowed to go on.
The school held an outdoor homecoming last year in which administrators stressed mask usage while at the same time allowing parties inside the school with alums to go on maskless.
The email from Chapple is an about face from her previous publicly stated stances on masking and vaccines.
At her discretion, Chapple has the right to decide whether schools or companies within the Oak Park village boundaries can remain open or must close. That came after the village board increased her "emergency regulatory power” to include this capability.
It was Chapple's decision to cancel all extracurricular events at Oak Park and River Forest High Schools last fall was made by Chapple. She received heavy criticism from school parents who felt said the decision was not based in logic.
She was later rumored to be under investigation for improperly revealing details about children she claimed to have vaccinated.
See Chapple's email below.
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