UPDATE: Judge grants TRO for families who fought QPS quarantine rule

THIS JUST IN: Adams County Circuit Court Judge Debra Wellborn has granted a temporary restraining order to three families whose children attend Quincy Public Schools to allow them to return to class and not be quarantined.

The students were three of 289 QPS students or staff who have been quarantined by the school district for contact tracing. The district was still quarantining these students after the Adams County Health Department’s 48-hour window has expired.

Attorney Thomas DeVore argued a school district didn’t have the power to quarantine a student without the backing of the health department.

Wellborn’s order was entered around 7:15 p.m.

Muddy River News will post the full order when it is filed and available Friday morning.

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QUINCY – Adams County Circuit Court Judge Debra Wellborn told a packed courtroom Thursday that she wanted some time to consider her decision.

On Tuesday, three families asked the court for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to allow the children to “continue their in-person education upon the premises of the district until such time as an order of quarantine might issue against the children.”

The motion for the preliminary injunction would allow the children of the plaintiffs to immediately “resume their in-person education unless the (Adams) County Health Department or the Illinois Department of Health has provided defendants with a lawful order of quarantine.” The motion for the preliminary injunction would allow the children of the plaintiffs to immediately “resume their in-person education unless the (Adams) County Health Department or the Illinois Department of Health has provided defendants with a lawful order of quarantine.”

Attorney David Penn of the Quincy School District and Attorney Thomas DeVore, who is representing the plaintiffs in the case, each did a majority of the talking for the 90 minute hearing Thursday afternoon. Scott and Jamie Hamby and their child, Christina Terwelp and her child, and Travis and Ashley Oshner and their child are the plaintiff’s.

The plaintiffs all had children who had been served 48-hour emergency quarantine orders by the Adams County Health Department last week. But when those quarantines expired Monday, the school district did not allow them to return to class, despite none of the children testing positive for COVID-19 or showing any symptoms.

The Adams County State’s Attorney has said they will not pursue court orders over close contact tracing for the Adams County Health Department because of a limitation of staff and resources.

Webb posted on Facebook earlier this week: “I have spoken with Gary Farha, the Adams County States Attorney. He told me that he does not have the time or resources to support the court orders. I did ask for that in an email, and he sent the following:

From Mr. Farha, “I certainly understand the need for you to have written documentation. At this time, due to the matters we spoke to this morning, we will not be going to court over a case because of close contacts. Again as my office becomes fully staffed, that could change. I understand the difficulties that causes the school system and we wish we could avoid the problem. As we move forward, and our staffing situation changes, I will notify you and the other school officials along with Jill Reis and members of the public health department.”

And because of that, DeVore said the Quincy School District didn’t have the authority to keep healthy kids from going to school. He said Webb’s decision was “speculation” and healthy kids were being kept from school. He said the policy to keep students out of school via quarantine without a court order was a violation of the rule of law.

Penn argued that QSD and Superintendent Roy Webb had the authority to adopt rules to keep students “safe and secure.” He said students who would opt for remote learning during a quarantine would suffer “no irreparable harm” by being denied to in-person learning and that was not isolating or quarantining the students since they had remote access.

DeVore countered there was already damage with 289 students, faculty and staff being kept out due to contact tracing and more than 100 who have tested positive.

Quincy School Board President Sayeed Ali was with Penn and Webb at the defendant’s table.

DeVore has won two other similar cases against school districts in Clinton and Macoupin Counties. In those instances, after the school district received rulings not in their favor, they went to district-wide remote learning for the foreseeable future.

Wellborn did not give a timeframe for when she would issue her ruling.