W E D N E S D A Y
September 15, 2021 Vol. 42, No. 7 ONE DOLLAR @oakpark @wednesdayjournal
JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest
Case by case, how OPRF faces COVID concerns
FROM SMALL THINGS...
Mandates, quarantines and hesitancy all intersect By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter
Anthony Clark thought he did enough to dodge the coronavirus. Clark, a community activist and teacher at Oak Park and River Forest High School, followed all the guidelines: He wore masks, practiced social distancing and was careful around gatherings. He got vaccinated – and received a COVID-19 booster shot. Just two weeks into the new school year, Clark tested positive for COVID-19. “I’ll be honest, I’m surprised,” he said. Clark, who is immunocompromised, said he hasn’t been inside his classroom – let alone the school building – in almost a year. Clark has Behcet’s disease, a rare disorder that causes inflammation of blood vessels, and because of his medical condition, he was able to teach remotely last year, even after OPRF opened up for hybrid learning in the spring. “As somebody who, of course, went out occasionally for nonprofit work or community work or you know, social gatherings, I managed to not catch Covid for about a year and a half,” Clark said. “It’s surprising to me. Literally, [it’s the] second week of being back at work, back in the building, being vaccinated, having the booster shot, I caught Covid.” So Clark went into isolation. Clark, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 days ahead of Labor Day weekend, said he missed a week of work and used up all See QUARANTINE on page 8
ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer
Grace Hampson (right), of River Forest, puts a donation in the jar Sept. 11 during the 19th Annual LemonAid fundraiser on Bonnie Brae Place in River Forest. Founded in 2002 to commemorate the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the event has raised more than $400,000 for local charities since that first year, when it raised $400 for Hephzibah Children’s Association. In 2020, LemonAid raised nearly $80,000.
9/11 project now a museum exhibit
Oak Park River Forest Museum shows students in 2001 struggling to understand attack By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter
Just as many can still remember exactly where they were Nov. 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was
assassinated, the fall of the World Trade Center is seared in the memories of those who were alive to witness it – even if some weren’t quite old enough at the time to fully grasp the tragedy. To help them process the events of Sept. 11, 2001,
Sally McPartlin, the art teacher at River Forest’s Roosevelt Middle School, asked her eighth-grade students to illustrate their emotions. See MUSEUM on page 15