Then there’s something you can do about how some schools, like Glenbrook (Ill.) High School District 225, are causing real damage to children by closing their schools.

Attend Rally To Open Our Schools, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, September 23 in Gallery Park,  2100 Patriot Blvd, Glenview. 

Organized by the grass-roots citizens’ group, Reopen Illinois Schools, the rally will send a clear message to the District 225 School Board, the administrators and an advisory committee tasked with recommending whether students should be required to continue with remote learning. The message: Re-open Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South high schools now.

The district hasn’t been keen to listen to parents, students and other concerned citizens about the damage, possibly permanent, that remote “learning” and the closing of the two high schools are doing to their students

Said the rally organizers,

Our goal is to raise awareness that a majority of the community wants to get our kids back into the classroom for in-person learning with appropriate mitigation efforts in place to help prevent the spread of COVID. Despite our outstanding teachers’ greatest efforts, elearning is no substitute for an in-person education. Our kids are not learning at the same level online as they learn in-person. They also are sedentary and socially isolated. Their mental health is at risk. There are local schools returning to classroom teaching with great success. While the virus concerns are valid, we want all schools to safely reopen for in-person instruction.

Speakers at the rally will include Paul Vallas, the respected educator and public servant who is credited with turning around several failing schools, including, at the time, the Chicago Public Schools. Vallas is an outspoke advocate of re-opening the schools.

Also speaking will be Dr. Dana Russo, a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist, and  Grant R. Koster, Vice President of Clinical Operations at Athletico Physical Therapy. Also speaking will be some students who can speak first hand about the damage that remote learning is doing. 

This is not a political rally, but some people sadly have politicized the issue. This is a straight-out plea for freeing students from a learning environment that has been demonstrated to be imperfect, if not dangerous. The science is clear: The risk to children is substantially less, as demonstrated by nearby schools as Loyola that have successfully re-opened.

Don’t rationalize your silence by saying that education experts must know what they’re doing. You, the parents, are in charge of your children. Tell the “experts” that you and your children want the schools opened, now.

P.S. While you’re at it, tell the administrators that it’s time to restart sports.