North Cook News

A candidate vying to represent the newly-drawn, north suburban 10th Congressional District in Congress is slamming Evanston Township High School's new student mask requirement.

Republican Joe Severino of Lake Forest, a first-time candidate challenging four-term incumbent, Democrat Bradley Schneider of Deerfield, says mandatory mask rules are about politics, not medicine.

"Masking children makes no medical sense and represents the worst kind of manipulative political theater inflicted upon vulnerable kids," Severino said. "I stand firmly against mandatory masking for anyone, and especially children."

"We must not allow the radical policies of Evanston to infect the 10th Congressional District, where I will always fight to protect the rights of students and parents," he said.

Evanston Township High School started requiring masks of its students again on May 16, as first reported by North Cook News.

"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 (Evanston Township High School) ETHS building," a school notice said.

According to Illinois state law, schools 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, based on specific evidence. Any individual quarantined has a right to object and to demand a hearing and due process.

Schneider has been one of the most pro-mask mandate members of Congress. In Jan. 2021, he announced he was "isolating in his Deerfield basement" after he said he was exposed to mask-less Republican lawmakers who refused to wear masks in the U.S. Capitol.

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

A recent 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."

In northern Cook County, Illinois' newly-drawn 10th Congressional District includes parts of Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, Wilmette, Northbrook, Northfield, Glenview, Wheeling, Deerfield and Buffalo Grove. The Cook Political Report rates it as Democrat +11.

Schneider has represented Illinois' current 10th Congressional district, whose map is set to expire next January, from 2012-14 and from 2016-present.

In northern Cook County, it includes parts of Glencoe, Glenview, Northbrook, Deerfield, Wheeling, Buffalo Grove, Prospect Heights, Mount Prospect, Des Plaines, Niles, Morton Grove and Park Ridge.