(Editor's note: This story has been updated. A previous version incorrectly state that attorney Tom DeVore represented plaintiffs in this action).
For the time being, a tiny school district in south central Illinois with a population of approximately 350 K-12 students has prevailed in its challenge to the goliath state.
A panel of Fifth District Appellate Court judges on Tuesday ruled against the Illinois High School Association over its enforcement of "probation" placed on Hutsonville CUSD 1 by the Illinois State Board of Education for not abiding by a mask mandate. One of the consequences of noncompliance for member schools is exclusion from competing inthe IHSA State Series, which includes a broad range of fall, winter and spring sports for male and female high school athletes.
The appellate court granted a temporary restraining order to the school and parent Cory Sheets until 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 22, when the matter will go again before Crawford County Court Judge Kimbara G. Harrell, who on Oct. 5 denied their request for a TRO.
"A school cannot have their sports canceled by IHSA due to being on 'probation' by ISBE," wrote attorney Tom DeVore in a statement posted online Tuesday. "I’ve been telling all of you this behavior of the state is nonsense. School districts need to take a stand."
DeVore has led many court challenges to curtail Gov. JB Pritzker’s use of COVID-19-related emergency powers.
On Sept. 28, Sheets and Hutsonville asked the court to enjoin the IHSA from enforcing its Aug. 23 resolution that precludes IHSA member schools on probation for not complying with Pritzker's Aug. 4 Covid-19 school mask order from participating in the State Series.
The student athlete identified as I.S. in the complaint is a senior and argued in part that not being able to compete for a year was the type of injury that could not be corrected by monetary judgment.
The Fifth District found that petitioners made a prima facie case of irreparable injury without an injunction and had no adequate remedy at law.
In its argument, Hutsonville asserted that it had a protectable right as an IHSA member based on the organization’s constitution and by-laws that established eligibility to compete in the State Series.
The school district and Sheets further argued that the IHSA’s Aug. 23 resolution breached contract between IHSA and its members by affecting Hutsonville’s eligibility to participate in the State Series "and therefore affected its rights as a member of the IHSA."
For the three-judge panel, Justice Barry Vaughan wrote that the neither the legitimacy of Pritzker's mandates or the Illinois State Board of Education's ability to put a school on probation over the refusal to comply with a mask mandate was at issue in this case.
"The TRO concerns only respondents’ authority to change a member school’s eligibility to participate in the State Series based on an ISBE’s 'on probation' status," Vaughan wrote.
"Because the executive orders and ISBE did not direct respondents—explicitly or impliedly—to preclude participation based on a school’s 'on probation' status, their authority is limited to the IHSA’s constitution and by-laws."