Fremont School District goes remote over planned protests regarding masks

A Mundelein school district is going fully remote after a number of demonstrations and protests were planned for Monday regarding masks. 

According to a statement on Fremont School District 79's website, the schools will be taking an adaptive pause until further notice.

"These protests include intentions to confront and/or interact directly with students. These protests would create a substantial disruption to the learning environment and would negatively impact our ability to deliver education to our students." 

The district said the decision to go remote follows what has been a challenging week for school districts across the state, adding that the impact of the recent temporary ruling for schools who were named and not named in the mask mitigations lawsuit has been "hotly debated."

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"While we all anticipated an expedited ruling already that may have provided a higher level of clarity, that has not happened, and it now appears that the matter may be litigated for a longer period of time.

"In addition, the Governor has since announced that the State of Illinois will begin its ‘off ramp’ of mitigation measures, lifting the mask mandate in the community beginning February 28th with schools to follow afterwards due to improving conditions. The current Executive Order mandating masking in schools remains effective until March 6th. We anticipate an appellate court ruling on this pending mask/mitigation matter by this Thursday."

The district said its focus is to continue to keep students safe and learning, and said this must be done in partnership with parents. 

"We ask for your partnership in ensuring that our schools remain welcoming and safe environments for all students to learn regardless of personal masking viewpoints. Our schools cannot become battle grounds for differing adult opinions."