COVID-19 Outbreak At OPRF High School + Village Settles Lawsuit

Good morning, Oak Park and River Forest! Let's get to the latest headlines.

First, today's weather: Clear throughout the day. High: 77, low: 61.

Here are the top stories today in Oak Park-River Forest:

1. Oak Park River Forest High School is one of 26 schools in Illinois reporting COVID-19 outbreaks this week. Contact tracers at the Illinois Department of Public Health say more than 540 schools had potential COVID-19 exposures in the first weeks of the school year. (Patch)

2. Local school districts are responding to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s vaccine mandate for educators. All public and private school employees in Illinois must be fully vaccinated by Sept. 5. Dominican University already had a vaccine mandate in place, while Concordia University only “encouraged” students and staff to get vaccinated. (Wednesday Journal)

3. Police Officer Rasul Freelain and the Village of Oak Park have agreed to a $175,000 settlement after a nine-year legal battle. Freelain originally sued Oak Park in 2012 after fellow officers harassed him for filing a complaint against a female superior’s unwanted sexual advances. (Wednesday Journal)

4. New legislative maps were passed in the Illinois House and Senate Tuesday “which could cement Democratic control of the legislature through the 2020s,” WBEZ reports. Senate President Don Harmon of Oak Park said the 177 districts based on 2020 census data “are good, fair maps that represent the diversity of the state of Illinois.” (WBEZ)

5. Trouble continues for Loretto Hospital after an investigation by the Better Government Association revealed additional problems in patient care and safety at the West Side health facility. Police reported an “uptick of assaults, batteries and violent incidents” at Loretto in recent years, in addition to falsified documents and neglected patients. (Block Club Chicago)

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Today in Oak Park-River Forest

• A sale at Personalization House benefits Oak Park Community Fridge. (10 a.m.)
• Make Sharpie tie-dye tees in Scoville Park. (4 p.m.)
• Brewpoint and Oak Park Records partner for “Vinyl Night: Women of Rock.” (5 p.m.)
• Le Travaillant Trio and Cole Brandt perform at one of the last Thursday Night Out events of the season. (5 p.m.)
• Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” opens at Lake Theatre. (6 p.m.)

Oak Park-River Forest Patch Notebook

• Illinois is updating its travel advisory as COVID-19 surges across the country. (NBC5)
• Chicago-area restaurants are offering Labor Day weekend specials. (Paid source: Chicago Tribune)
• PAWS Chicago is helping rescue animals displaced by Hurricane Ida. (FOX)
• Save the date for the Oak Park-River Forest Chamber of Commerce’s Spotlight Soiree, set for Oct. 12. (OPRF Chamber of Commerce)
• This week in Oak Park history: local schools dealt with an overcrowding crisis in 1922, with 6,000 students returning to nine school buildings. (OPRF Museum)

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That's all for today! See you back in your inbox tomorrow with your next update! As always, here is the link to subscribe to the Daily for friends and neighbors. Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts on the news with Patch!

— Georgi Presecky

About me: Georgi is a Chicago-based reporter with seven years of experience writing for entertainment-based publications. She represented FF2 Media for five years at film festivals across the U.S., from Sundance to Austin. Her feature articles have been recognized with awards from the Illinois Women's Press Association and National Federation of Press Women. As Editor-in-Chief of the Lewis University campus newspaper, she earned honors from The Associated Collegiate Press Association and American Scholastic Press Association. She began working for Patch in 2019.