Beaufort Co. school board stalls on mask mandate decision as local COVID cases spike
After a long, civil meeting — 6 1/2 hours and 66 public comments peppered with applause but no vitriol — Beaufort County’s school board declined to decide Monday night whether to require masks in the schools.
Instead, it voted 9-2 to table its decision until the South Carolina Supreme Court rules on whether a ban on mask mandates, tucked in a budget proviso passed by the S.C. legislature, is constitutional.
Richland 2 School District asked the court to take up the proviso, which states any school or district that requires masks for students or staff will lose state funding.
In Beaufort County, school board member Ingrid Boatright moved to table the mask mandate, saying the legal advice the board received in closed session indicated that the Supreme Court would reach a decision this week. William Smith and Rachel Wisnefski voted “no.”
“I’m not lightly asking to table this,” Boatright said. “But I think this is a big deal, and we need all the information on the table before we make this decision.”
COVID-19 cases in Beaufort County are at an all-time high, with 131 confirmed new cases and seven deaths reported by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control on Monday. The county’s seven-day average of new infections is 151 every day, which breaks the previous record of 147 set Sunday.
Between Aug. 16, the first day of school, and Sunday, Beaufort County School District reported 200 students or employees diagnosed with COVID; 1,315 students and 40 staff were quarantining.
Students make up 180 of the COVID cases; 20 are employees.
For perspective, that means 6.9% of the district’s roughly 21,500-student enrollment has either been diagnosed with COVID or quarantined. District spokesperson Candace Bruder said Tuesday that she was still waiting to receive data on how many staff members were quarantined during that time period.
The school district is not maintaining a COVID-19 dashboard this year as it did last year, according to its reopening guidelines. Superintendent Frank Rodriguez said Monday night that he would check for more current district case and quarantine numbers.
‘Delta has changed the game’
Approximately 75 people submitted a public comment card for Monday’s meeting, and 66 spoke in a public comment session that lasted 3 1/2 hours.
The commenters were evenly split: 33 people were against a mandate, and 32 were in favor. One woman did not weigh in on a mandate but said she wanted last year’s virtual option restored.
The comments ran the gamut.
A mom at Okatie Elementary said she’s received four notifications of a COVID case in the school in the first six days of classes.
Two fathers said separately that they had moved their families from New Jersey to South Carolina to take advantage of the more lax COVID restrictions, and couldn’t believe what they were hearing.
A 14-year-old student said he felt claustrophobic and dizzy when he wore a mask to class.
A Hilton Head Island High School parent quoted U.S. Rep. John Lewis, saying she thought it was time for the district to “get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
“Tonight I ask you to enact a mask mandate,” said Missy Luick, another Hilton Head parent. “Delta has changed the game. I realize it’s currently illegal to do so, but think about when you’ve knowingly broken the law. If someone was suffering from a medical emergency, would you speed to the hospital to save a loved one? Yes.”
Several people made exaggerated and false claims about the dangers of masks: that they lower oxygen levels (they don’t by any measurable amount), are ineffective at stopping viral particles (even a simple cloth mask blocks 51% of COVID-sized particles) and increase flu-like symptoms (flu deaths and hospitalizations for non-COVID respiratory illnesses have gone way down since the start of the pandemic).
Others said they wished the district would restore a virtual option, also taboo under the state budget proviso. If more than 5% of a district’s students are in long-term virtual learning, the district could lose up to half of its per-pupil funding for each virtual student over that limit.
And many threatened to withdraw their children from schools or take legal action against the school board if the mandate passed.
“You have taken an under-the-radar, low-voter-turnout job on the school board and turned it into a rallying cry for parental rights,” commenter Beth Kaufman said. “Everyone here now knows the name of their representative — Ingrid Boatright. If you are lawless, when they see your name on the ballot, they will vote for anyone else. They might decide to run for themselves.”
A statewide debate
Across South Carolina, school districts and state officials have fought back against the state legislature’s budget proviso.
On Friday, DHEC amended its guidance to K-12 schools to recommend universal masking, and the DHEC board voted to contact lawmakers and ask them to revise the proviso.
Republican S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson announced Thursday that he is suing the city of Columbia for its ordinance mandating that students and faculty wear masks in some schools.
Richland One and Charleston County school districts have both implemented mask mandates despite the state ban. However, the Charleston Post and Courier has reported that enforcement of the mandate may be spotty in Charleston County following mixed messaging from the school district. Monday was the first day of classes.
At least four private schools in Beaufort County are mandating masks. The county’s Catholic schools — St. Gregory the Great in Bluffton, John Paul II in Okatie, St. Francis in Hilton Head and St. Peter’s in Lady’s Island — began requiring masks for staff and students Wednesday, following a directive from the Charleston Diocese.
Neighboring Jasper County School District announced Sunday that its lone high school, Ridgeland-Hardeeville High, is returning to virtual learning all week after logging 24 COVID-19 infections and 96 quarantines.
This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 12:08 AM.