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Illinois Schools Caught in the Middle with Basketball Season Approaching

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A southern Illinois school administrator says the vote by the Illinois High School Association's Board of Directors to allow basketball to proceed against the recommendation of the State Public Health Department and Governor J-B Pritzker has put districts between a rock and a hard place.
Pope County Schools Superintendent Ryan Fritch says schools like his are weighing student safety and health concerns from COVID-19 with students not getting to participate in a season with potential legal liability and a loss of state funding in playing a sport deemed high-risk by IDPH.

He says this lack of cooperation at the state level has left him unsure about how to proceed.

“As of right now, kind of what we’re doing is we’re just kind of sitting back, hopefully letting some things develop and maybe within the next couple of weeks these organizations can come together and put something together that will work for everybody.”

Fritch says right now Pope County High School is following the IDPH recommendation of allowing basketball at the Stage One Level, which means no contact drills and training.

In the disagreement between the IHSA and the public health department over whether high school basketball should be played in Illinois as COVID metrics stand now, Governor J-B Pritzker says his priority is the safety of students, teachers and staff at schools.

Pritzker says he thinks it's more important to get students back in the classroom.

“We have 1.8 million children who are not in school every day in this state. We want to get kids back in school and sports is a secondary question. We want to make sure their learning first of all.”

Pritzker says state leaders and the IHSA are in talks, but he stressed it's up to individual school districts to decide what is best for their situation in the face of potential litigation if something unfortunate happens.

As a news producer and news anchor on All Things Considered, Brad provides the listeners with a recap of the day's top local and state news as well as breaking news at any given time. Contact WSIU Radio at 618-453-6101 or email wsiunews@wsiu.org
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