What did 1,400+ people tell Beaufort Co. schools about how to operate this fall amid COVID?
How did people really feel about Beaufort County’s school COVID policies? For the first time, we have a good idea.
On Friday, Beaufort County School District released more than 300 pages of responses from parents, teachers, staff, students and community members to a June survey entitled “Safe Return to Schools Plan Feedback.” The survey results were released to The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette following a Freedom of Information Act request.
The survey polled respondents for their thoughts on district policies — optional masking, contact tracing and not mandating vaccines among them — and netted 1,418 responses that show a community exhausted by the pandemic and divided on COVID protocols.
Survey respondents did not write their names but identified themselves as parents, parents of children with special needs, teachers, staff, school or district administrators, community members and/or students. Some selected multiple options or elaborated further on their position in the district.
Here’s what they said, in their own words.
On health and safety
In separate questions, the survey asked whether respondents had feedback on “maintaining the health and safety” of students and staff.
Teacher. Please keep virtual learning an option for students and families in unique situations. Continue the 10-day quarantine protection for teachers who may be a close contact, but not actually sick. It’s a good way to ensure honesty and transparency when it comes to health protocol.
School nurse. No masks, no plexi glass, no virtual, all students should be in the building unless medical issues than attend the virtual school... Contact tracing, is very challenging. Too many people lie and are not truthful about results.
Parent of a student with special needs. My concern is how to keep my children safe when vaccination is only an option. Additionally although I can send them to school with a mask they would still need to take it off for P.E. and lunch. I’d rather them remain virtual.
Parent of a student with special needs. The original plan was to “follow the science” until that became inconvenient.
Vaccinations
Vaccines are optional, but encouraged, for Beaufort County staff and eligible students over the age of 12. The district has held several vaccination events for staff and the community at large, most recently partnering with Beaufort Memorial Hospital for a two-school, 600-car vaccine drive-through event.
Parent. If vaccinations are still not an option for younger children when school restarts, I think it is very unfair for me to have to send my child to be around an unvaccinated teacher who chooses not to wear a mask. ... Masks should be mandated for unvaccinated adults for their protection and my child’s until all kids have the option to receive a vaccination.
Parent, teacher. I wish it was mandatory. I appreciate the opportunity to get the vaccine at school.
Parent. The school has no right to mandate vaccines that are not necessary. My kids had covid and will not be getting the vaccine.
Parent. Vaccinations should continue to be a personal choice. We have the right to choose what we put into our bodies.
Parent of a student with special needs. Please never mandate vaccinations for our students or staff. That would be unacceptable to our family and we would leave public education for good. We have already withdrawn our daughter and put her in private and we will do the same for our son if that was to be implemented.
Parent, teacher. Why aren’t staff members required to vaccinate if they are going to be around children too young to get vaccinated.
Masks
Beaufort County School District is not requiring masks because a state budget proviso says any school or district that requires masks for students or staff will lose state funding. Mask-wearing varies widely across schools.
Parent. I think this is terrible. Kids are unvaccinated at this time and I don’t feel comfortable sending my unvaccinated kids to school without masks in place. Science says masks protect others, not the wearer so even if my kids wear masks, which they will, that will not protect them.
Parent, school or district administrator. How do we ensure teachers are following the wishes of parents at the elementary level (when students may not want to wear them, but parent wants them too). Teachers [are] so busy doing other things (like teaching) - they shouldn’t have to be mask police. Neither should admin - what consequence would there be?
Teacher. I don’t think the masks did anything.
Parent. Will mask usage still be encouraged?? This would help those students who still want to wear a mask feel more confident around their maskless peers. I have a 6 y/o going into 2nd grade who wears her mask religiously. She is looking forward to the vaccine being available for her age group, but doesn’t feel comfortable without a mask until then. However, encouraging mask use for elementary age children (if a vaccine is still not available) would help her and other children like her feel confident about their choice to wear a mask.
Parent of a student with special needs. Masks should NEVER be mandated in our schools.
Virtual and in-person learning
While the survey didn’t specifically ask about virtual learning, plenty of people addressed the issue.
The district was hamstrung by a state budget rule blocking extensive virtual options. School districts can’t have more than 5% of their students in a virtual program this school year. If they go over that limit, districts could lose up to 50% of their per-pupil funding, according to the S.C. Department of Education.
As a result, the district says it is not offering remote-only options this year for elementary and high schoolers, and it has only 100 slots in a full-time virtual program for middle schoolers through the Lowcountry Education Consortium.
Teacher. Do not mix virtual and in person classes again! My gosh, it is emotionally devestating to the teacher to try and reach both at the same time. Does not work!!
Parent. Virtual learning was a nightmare. As a first time public school students’ parent in kindergarten we STUGGLED! My child did not see me as a teacher figure and spent most of the day crying and acting out.
Parent. My child struggled horribly without being able to have a teacher help him one on one due to distancing. He nearly failed because of it. Please find a way to address that. Perhaps a plexiglass divider if necessary that still allows them to be next to each other at the least.
Teacher. Our classrooms are overcrowded. Not adequate space between students to social distance. Areas of the school that are not being used such as small gyms in the high schools should be use for classroom space to keep teachers/students safe.
Teacher, community member. Please please please let’s keep zoom meetings!!!! Way too many faculty & staff are not wearing masks or distancing (inside & outside of school). We were still having school staff getting Covid at the end of the school year. We do not need to be in large group meetings.
Quarantines and contact tracing
The district is following the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s interim guidance for schools when establishing quarantines.
Those who are deemed “close contacts” under DHEC rules — meaning they have been within three feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes — are asked to quarantine for 10 days.
Close contacts who are fully vaccinated, and those who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 90 days, are exempt from quarantines unless they become symptomatic.
DHEC recommends that fully vaccinated people get tested for COVID-19 three to five days after exposure and wear a mask at school until they get a negative COVID test result or 14 days after exposure.
Parent. Quarantining healthy people is insane. Can’t we just ask parents to keep their symptomatic kids at home? Common sense here please! Last year I missed a MONTH of work bc my youngest DIDN’T have covid. So dumb!
Parent. I do not wish for my children or I to be contact traced. The quarantine procedures are utterly useless as siblings, family members need to live. You also cannot control where they go in public so [it] makes zero sense.
Teacher. Contact Tracing and Quarantine practices need to be dropped. Too much school and extra curricular events were cancelled or delayed because of outlandish policies. Was any data collected on how many students that were contact traced and quarantined felt bad or tested positive as a result of being a close contact? This is one section of the decision making process where the district dropped the ball. To my knowledge, there is no data collected relating to how effective contact tracing and quarantining actually are. This needs to be dropped immediately.
Teacher. BCSD is not following contact tracing and quarantine practices according to the letters you send out. Exposed classrooms are not followed up on, students aren’t [kept] together, and teachers are the last to know when a student in their class is out for covid, or “flu” as noted on attendance.