Dear Board Members and Superintendents,
This letter details the violation of students' legal right to an education and the unconstitutional overreach of the elected school board officials and paid employees to mandate health requirements, specifically masking and quarantine/vaccination segregation for the school year 2021/2022. Individual board members may be held legally responsible and liable for violating constitutional laws since they are not healthcare professionals. School board members are not protected by qualified immunity, and they have allegedly violated civil and criminal laws, and can be held responsible individually along with the superintendent.
As of July 1, 2021 the school board has the authority to determine all return to school plans. We ask that the school board implement an optional face mask form for students for school year 21/22. An opt in/out form will provide parents/guardians control over their student’s medical needs. In addition to a face mask form, the school board should not adopt any quarantine/vaccination segregation of non-vaccinated students for school year 2021/2022. In consultation with legal counsel, they have outlined the following violations of constitutional and state law. Illinois School Code is extremely specific regarding laws passed by the legislative branch of the state and adopted into school board policy.
FACE MASK LAW
1. There is currently no state law in Illinois enacted by the Illinois Legislature, or any Administrative Rule enacted that requires any individual, including students, to wear a medical device otherwise generally known as a face mask in order to prevent any illness, including but not limited to any contagious or infectious disease, virus, etc.
2. There is no lawful authority, neither State nor Federal, that has the ability to lawfully and legally require any individual in a private setting, in a public place or within an individual's workplace or place of employment or in a school, a school classroom or any school property to require any individual to wear a medical device otherwise generally known as a face mask in order to prevent any illness, including but not limited to any contagious or infectious disease, virus, etc.
ISBE AUTHORITY
3. The Illinois State Board of Education, School Superintendents, School Boards, teachers or any other Illinois educational personnel are not medical nor health care professionals, licensed in the State of Illinois to perform medical diagnosis or prescribe remedies, medical interventions, etc. and therefore have no lawful or legal authority to require any individual or student in a school, a school classroom or any school property to wear a medical device otherwise generally known as a face mask in order to prevent any illness, including but not limited to any contagious or infectious disease, virus, etc. pursuant to 105 ILCS 5/2, Illinois School Code, State Board of Education – Powers and Duties.
IDPH AUTHORITY
4. The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) does not have the lawful and legal authority to mandate, require or force any individual to wear a medical device otherwise generally known as a face mask in order to prevent any illness, including but not limited to any contagious or infectious disease, virus, etc. and to do so is unlawful and acting outside their statutory authority pursuant to 20 ILCS 2310-15.
5. Further, any and all IDPH guidance, suggestions, orders or directions provided or given to Illinois Schools, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) or Illinois School officials, Boards or Superintendents regarding school health care policy, measures or safety precautions, school attendance procedures, or face mask or facial covering requirements is 100%, unequivocally, without question or contemplation, unlawful and illegal.
In 1897, in Potts v. Breen, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that: "While school directors and boards of education are invested with power to establish, provide for, govern and regulate public schools, they are in these respects nowise subject to the direction or control of the State Board of Health"
CDC AUTHORITY
6. The CDC (Centers For Disease Control) is an advisory agency to the Executive Branch of the United States Government; it is an advisory agency only and possesses no rule making authority, federally or within the 50 states of the United States of America, and has no authority to lawfully or legally to mandate or require any individual, including students, to wear a medical device otherwise generally known as a face mask in order to prevent any illness, including but not limited to any contagious or infectious disease, virus, etc.
BAILEY V. PRITZKER RULING/AUTHORITY
7. On July 2, 2020, a Clay County, Illinois Court ruled in a Class Action case, Bailey vs. Pritzker (20CH06), that the Illinois Governor had no Constitutional nor legal authority to issue any Executive Orders after April, 2020, pursuant to the IEMAA and as such any Executive Orders issued were unconstitutional and “void ab initio”. This Illinois Court Order continues to be valid and is currently applicable.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 2021-10
8. The Governor’s recent Executive Order, 2021-10, that attempts to further expand, or intended to continue, renew or reiterate any mitigation or restrictive policies previously stated regarding movement or health-related measures or that requires any individual in a private setting, in a public place, within an individual's workplace or place of employment, a school, a school classroom or school property to wear a medical device otherwise generally known as a face mask in order to prevent any disease, virus, etc. or defer such authority or rule-making to the IDPH or the ISBE, violates the Bailey Court Order and is unlawful and has no legal authority.
COVID VACCINE STATUS/FDA AUTHORITY
9. The COVID vaccine is an experimental, FDA unapproved medical treatment and is only authorized for use pursuant to the Emergency Use Act (21 USC 564(b)(1)(C) ). Therefore, the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 360bbb-3, regulates the use and the administration of that experimental, unapproved treatment and states: “. . . the option to accept or refuse administration of the product, of the consequences, if any, of refusing administration of the product, and of the alternatives to the product that are available and of their benefits and risks.” Therefore, every individual has the right to refuse any vaccine authorized under the EUA.
VACCINATION ID CARDS
10. Vaccine Identification cards issued by local health care personnel as the result of being administered a vaccine that is not lawfully mandatory are not a legal document and have no legal or authoritative value. As well, these vaccine ID cards contain personal and private health information protected by federal law pursuant to the HIPAA Privacy Rule, 45 CFR Part 160 and Subparts A and E of Part 164, and specifically Rules number 1 and 18; that personal identification information is private by federal definition and protected pursuant to federal law and not required to be disclosed unless by voluntary consent.
ILLINOIS HEALTH CARE RIGHT OF CONSCIENCE ACT
11. Pursuant to 745 ILCS 70/1, Sections 2,5 and 7, the Health Care Right of Conscience Act, states:
“Sec. 2. Findings and policy. The General Assembly finds and declares that people and organizations hold different beliefs about whether certain health care services are morally acceptable. It is the public policy of the State of Illinois to respect and protect the right of conscience of all persons who refuse to obtain, receive or accept, or who are engaged in, the delivery of, arrangement for, or payment of health care services and medical care whether acting individually, corporately, or in association with other persons; and to prohibit all forms of discrimination, disqualification, coercion, disability or imposition of liability upon such persons or entities by reason of their refusing to act contrary to their conscience or conscientious convictions in refusing to obtain, receive, accept, deliver, pay for, or arrange for the payment of health care services and medical care.”
“Sec. 5. Discrimination. It shall be unlawful for any person, public or private institution, or public official to discriminate against any person in any manner, including but not limited to, licensing, hiring, promotion, transfer, staff appointment, hospital, managed care entity, or any other privileges, because of such person's conscientious refusal to receive, obtain, accept, perform, assist, counsel, suggest, recommend, refer or participate in any way in any particular form of health care services contrary to his or her conscience.”
“Sec. 7 Discrimination by employers or institutions. It shall be unlawful for any public or private employer, entity, agency, institution, official or person, including but not limited to, a medical, nursing or other medical training institution, to deny admission because of, to place any reference in its application form concerning, to orally question about, to impose any burdens in terms or conditions of employment on, or to otherwise discriminate against, any applicant, in terms of employment, admission to or participation in any programs for which the applicant is eligible, or to discriminate in relation thereto, in any other manner, on account of the applicant's refusal to receive, obtain, accept, perform, counsel, suggest, recommend, refer, assist or participate in any way in any forms of health care services contrary to his or her conscience”
A citizen’s Individual Medical Choice to refuse to wear a facial covering or face mask, to refuse or reject an experimental and FDA unapproved and untested medical treatment by way of vaccine, or a parent or guardian’s choice to exercise the same for a minor child or children is a protected individual medical and conscience choice and right and is protected by Illinois law and shall not be violated or infringed.
It is now the burden of the district's legal team to provide statutes or codes that counter the ones we laid out in this letter.
Respectfully,
Concerned Parents
