North Cook News

Evanston Township High School says its students and staff must wear masks when they report to the school on Monday, May 16.

That's according to a notice issued by the school late Sunday, asking "students and staff" to hold each other in "loving accountability" for wearing masks.

"All ETHS students and staff - regardless of vaccination status- will be required to wear masks indoors at this time. Should conditions change, ETHS will adjust and communicate updates," the notice said. "To help reduce the spread of the virus, everyone must do their part. Students and staff are asked to hold each other in loving accountability to properly wear a mask over their nose and mouth while inside the ETHS building."

According to Illinois state law, Evanston H.S. cannot require students or staff members to wear masks because the requirement would be a type of quarantine. School officials do not have such authority.

Quarantines can only be issued by city or county health departments and, then, only to individuals (not groups), based on specific evidence.

Any individual quarantined has a right to object and to demand a hearing and due process.

There has never been a study indicating masks do anything to prevent or even slightly minimize the spread of viruses like COVID-19.

Countless studies assessing masks before-- and since-- the COVID-19 scare, have been unanimous in their conclusions.

A 2009 study of Japanese heath care workers, published in the American Journal of Infection Control, found wearing masks did cause more headaches but did not reduce the incidence of the common cold.

In 2010, the journal Epidemiology and Infection by Cambridge University Press published an meta-analysis of six studies, asking whether wearing face masks reduced influenza spread. All six -- including studies in Saudi Arabia, Boston, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Toronto-- found "no protective effect" of masks.

In 2011, the United Kingdom Department of Health looked at 17 studies of mask effectiveness.

"None of the studies we reviewed established a conclusive relationship between mask use and protection against influenza infection," it said.

Most recently, a study of 35 countries in Europe over six months, released in April, found "that countries with high levels of mask compliance did not perform better than those with low mask usage."

The Evanston Township High School District 202 School Board includes seven women-- ETHS teacher Pat Savage-Williams, McGaw YMCA President Monique Parsons, ETHS "director of equity and inclusion" Mirah Anti, lawyer and ex-Jenner & Block partner Gretchen Livingston, "equity" consultant Patricia Maunsell,  professional photographer Elizabeth Rolewicz and and Northwestern University administrator Stephanie Teterycz.

Marcus Campbell has been school principal for nine year and has been at ETHS for 21 years. He will move to district superintendent for the 2022-23 school year.

According to the Illinois State Board of Education, 47 percent of ETHS students last year failed the state standardized academic examination in English, performing below their grade level. That's up from a 41 percent school failure rate in 2017.

In math, state reports showed 52 percent of ETHS students failed the state exam in 2021, up from 45 percent in 2017.