*We can all help prevent suicide. The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals. Please call 1-800-273-8255
LASALLE COUNTY, Ill (KMOX) - Lisa Mara Moore believes "100 percent" that the COVID-19 restrictions in Illinois that prevented her son from participating in high school sports caused him to kill himself in October. That's why she and the parents of three other student-athletes are suing Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Moore's son, Trevor Till, was possibly going to the state championship as a pole vaulter in his senior year at Seneca High School.
Related
A lawsuit filed last month against Pritzker reportedly stated "Trevor was devastated that he didn’t have his senior year track and pole vaulting season" and "the final blow was when winter sports were canceled. Trevor committed suicide on October 21, 2020, a proximate cause of which was Governor Pritzker’s restrictions on high school sports programs."
"He's a teenage boy. They need their friends. They need the interaction. They need the socialization," Moore told Fox News host Harris Faulkner. "He was that student in the classroom that raised his hand, got the conversations going. Doing that from Zoom, doing that from his bedroom, it was not the same feeling for him.
"I saw him started to get just a little depressed."
Pritzker's administration has not allowed the Illinois High School Association to participate in sports this academic year. They announced this week that practices and games for some sports can now take the field, court and track again.
The attorney representing the group suing Pritizer told Fox News that the "elites in power" are treating high school student athletes unfairly and the state is in "clear violation of the equal protection rights of high school students."
"I think there's something amiss here that high school students have been treated and discriminated against, which is why we filed this," the attorney said.
Pritzker responded to the lawsuit, according to the The Chicago Sun Times, during a daily coronavirus update last month:
‘‘Professional sports and college sports have significant resources for protecting their players. For creating social distance, for example, by having multiple locker rooms; by making sure they have plexiglass everywhere that they need 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.’’
© 2020 KMOX (Entercom). All rights reserved