The parents of four high school athletes from Illinois filed a lawsuit on Monday against Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois High School Association at the LaSalle County Court.
The lawsuit alleges Pritzker’s cancellation of the high school winter sports season “is an unconstitutional violation of the Claimants’ right to equal protection under the Illinois State Constitution.” of the winter sports season.
”[Pritzker] is using this emergency status to create these restrictions, ” said Laura Grochocki, the plaintiffs’ lawyer. “They should have a rational basis. We are asking why high school sports have restrictions and why college and professional sports do not. Is there a rationale for restrictions on high school? Or is there something more at work here, why [colleges and pros] can they play and secondary schools not? ”
Trevor Till, son of principal claimant Lisa Moore, committed suicide in late October in Champaign. He graduated from Seneca in June. He even ran cross country and athletics, was class president and participated in various school activities.
“Trevor was devastated not to have his athletics and pole vault season last year,” according to the lawsuit. The final blow came when winter sports were canceled. Trevor committed suicide on October 21, 2020, a cause close to Governor Pritzker’s restrictions on high school sports programs. ”
Kate Benton, another plaintiff, is the mother of two athletes from Downers Grove North. According to the lawsuit, their children could not be seen by college recruiters because of the cancellation of winter sports. Benton’s daughter, a basketball and softball player, “suffered socially without contact with colleagues, lost most of her friends and rarely leaves home,” according to the lawsuit.
“We are focusing on a very narrow issue,” said Grochocki. ” We just want clarifications from the courts on how they are seeing this. If they decided against us, it would be a very significant difference in how they have decided in cases of equal protection in the past. ”
Several lawsuits were filed against Pritzker because of his restrictions on COVID-19, but few have been successful. A federal lawsuit against IHSA was closed in early October.
Pritzker responded to the process during his daily update of COVID-19 on Wednesday.
“Professional and college sports have significant resources to protect their players,” said Pritzker. ” To create social distance, for example, by having several changing rooms; making sure that they have plexiglass in all the necessary places to separate the players; to test them on a much more regular basis than an individual high school or district could afford. That’s why there is a difference. ”
IHSA declined to comment at this time.
Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health suspended basketball and other high- and medium-risk winter sports in late October and said they would only be played in the spring.
“We are not saying that these sports will not be played,” said Pritzker in October. ” We are delaying the practice of these sports. We are saying to train, to do conditioning. Even in high-risk sports, there are things they can do. It’s not like we’re shutting down sports. But all of this is being carried over into spring, with the hope of seeing vaccines and effective treatments. ”
IHSA tried to move on and play basketball as scheduled, but insurers did not guarantee schools, forcing superintendents and school boards to choose the IHSA season.