West Cook News

An Oak Park resident took to Twitter to report the police were called on him at a meeting of the Oak Park Health Department. 

The post’s authors said controversial Oak Park Health Director Theresa Chapple refused to begin the meeting. 

"Yesterday, I attended an in-person meeting of the Health Dept. of Oak Park (I know ... actually in-person, it was wild)," ThePhriendlyConfines said in his series of tweets. "Unbeknownst to me, they required masks at the meeting, which was held at the public library. I did not comply. One other person also did not comply. They delayed the meeting 15 minutes before @Theresa_Chapple came to the front and said they were waiting on compliance from us two before they could start. We defied their requirement and stayed, unmasked, at our seats. Lots of discussion, berating and ridicule ensued. One library security guard approached me, he was very nice, I said I was waiting for the meeting to start, he said “OK” and walked away. 

The author added that there were several Health Department members that were "triggered, angry, irate" at the idea that they were not complying with a mask requirement. They had been continuously asked to comply or leave until past 30 minutes the start time. 

"We did neither," the author said. "I maintained THEY were holding up the meeting and continued to urge them to go ahead and start. They wouldn’t. Two police officers then entered the room. They were unmasked, along with me and another person, while everyone else was masked. They announced “we’re neutral here.” It was brilliant. They would not remove us, understanding we weren’t breaking any laws, but simply defying @Theresa_Chapple and her Health Dept. After a few more minutes of being scoffed at and ridiculed, they realized the police were NOT going to remove us, so they were either going to cancel the meeting or start with us there, unmasked. Some people left, they just couldn’t handle us unmasked people."

ThePhriendlyConfines said that Chapple and her team couldn’t understand how the two of them could have the nerve to defy the rule, the “requirement.”  

"Frankly, it felt great," the author said. "They got to see, finally, what real in-person resistance and defiance looks like, instead of continuing to hide behind a screen behind closed doors because they are STILL unwilling to meet in-person (except for this special meeting), along with @vopnews and @OakPark97. It’s truly embarrassing. Anyway, the police left, and we proceeded to attend and participate in the meeting without further issue, unmasked." 

Despite the fact that over 75% of children already have antibodies that are superior to the vaccine, Chapple recently took to Twitter to laud childhood vaccines, West Cook News reported.

Chapple seems to support masking indefinitely wholeheartedly. She supported Philadelphia's masking laws, which brought back a practice long outlawed in other parts of the nation.

While others demonstrated across the state to have masking and other COVID-19 restrictions lifted during the spring semester of 2022, Chapple pushed for the closure of schools once more, West Cook News reported. The updated "isolation/quarantine" guidelines published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control would not be adopted, according to Chapple at the time. This seems to be the case as Philadelphia's metric is its own.