Kendall County Times

Chicago Morning Answer radio host Dan Proft and former state representative Jeanne Ives are calling foul on the Joliet Diocese of Catholic Schools Superintendent Michael Boyle after he canceled basketball games despite a judge's temporary restraining order effectively prohibiting mask requirements for students in numerous school districts across the state.

Sangamon Court Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow’s ruling came after parents filed suit last year against more than 140 school districts, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois State Board of Education, asserting that “there was no due process in Illinois' statewide mask order.”

Announced Feb. 4, the ruling establishes that “defendants are temporarily restrained from ordering school districts to require masks for students and teachers - unless a quarantine order is issued by a local health department.”

Despite the ruling, Boyle canceled the games, asserting, “I will not have any guidance completed and distributed in time to guide the expected behavior for tomorrow’s basketball games."

The Diocese of Joliet includes DuPage, Ford, Grundy, Iroquois, Kankakee, Kendall, and Will Counties. “I am cancelling all basketball games for this weekend.”

While Pritzker quickly announced he plans to appeal the judge’s ruling, both Proft and Ives have no doubt about where they stand on Boyle’s decision.

"Michael Boyle is an officious, P-hat wearing COVIDian minder,” Proft posted on Facebook.  “Catholic school parents in the Joliet diocese should be demanding his resignation.”

Ives posted on Facebook, “This doesn’t sound like the Mike Boyle I know who took me around to Catholic schools in the poorest parts of Chicago, who led St. Mike’s through a transition for two years, whose kids played sports with mine and who I served on a  four-person committee with to improve St. Mike’s academic outcomes. I am disappointed and praying for a change of heart from him.”

More than 700 parents were part of the suit filed on their behalf by attorney Thomas DeVore.