North Cook News

The School for Little Children in Evanston is bucking the trend of schools going mask-optional statewide by requiring masks until the end of the school year.

"The governing board at School for Little Children in Evanston understands neither school nor children. Unfortunately, this announcement makes clear that the tuition-paying parents & staff at SLC are very much confused about data, science, and the law," Twitter user and COVID-researcher using the alias Emma Woodhouse, said.

Woodhouse’s comment was in response to the SLC board’s announcement noting the policy extension until the end of the school year with a mask optional phase for outdoor masking beginning April 1.

Evanston’s School for Little Children | Facebook

SLC oversees students ages 2 through 6, which are unlikely to see any effect from COVID.

The school incorrectly noted the start date of masking as "2019" rather than March "2020."

"On Wednesday night, the Governing Board met once again (comprised primarily of the SAME group of people who were at the helm in March of 2019) to discuss the updated Covid-19 guidance from DCFS and EHHS as it relates to wearing face covering at schools. As you know, Governor Pritzker lifted the indoor masking requirements on March 1st, 2022," the school said in an announcement.  

"After thoughtful collaboration and discussion: the Board voted unanimously to continue to require indoor masking in our facility for staff & children until the end of the school year, but to relax our outdoor masking requirements beginning April 1st. Additionally, the Board approved to become mask optional, both indoors and outdoors, for all summer programming at SLC."

The move comes after a court order struck down masking across the state.

The move goes against the CDC’s latest indoor masking recommendations that would make SLC mask optional if the school followed them.

Data suggests masking is ineffective except when those wearing masks use mini-respirators like properly fit N95 and KN95 masks. Even then, mask wearing has been noted as inappropriate.

"Does that Face Mask Really Protect You," a 2010 research article by Dr. Larry E. Bowen of the Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Ala., fit various types of masks on a mannequin to study their effectiveness, found that wearing surgical, bandana and dust masks offer "very little protection" and concluded that "wearing these face masks may produce a false sense of protection."

A University of Illinois at Chicago study found that "cloth masks and face coverings are likely to have limited impact on lowering COVID-19 transmission, because they have minimal ability to prevent the emission of small particles.. and offer limited personal protection with respect to small particle inhalation."