Beaufort Co. school board rejects mask mandate for students, staff
Beaufort County School district will not require students and staff to wear masks, the school board decided Thursday in a 4-5-1 vote.
Christina Gwozdz, Tricia Fidrych, Rachel Wisnefski, Richard Geier and Angela Middleton voted “no.” Ingrid Boatright abstained, saying she still lacked legal guidance on the motion.
Thirteen members of the public showed up, five masked and eight unmasked. The meeting was relatively calm, other than one moment where mask opponents clapped and Geier asked them to stop.
Several board members expressed confusion over dueling opinions released by state and federal courts this week.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis placed a temporary restraining order, pausing a state law aimed at preventing school districts from requiring masks.
She wrote that the law, which expires after one year and states that any school or district that requires masks for students or staff will lose state funding, discriminates against students with disabilities.
Lewis’ restraining order overrides the authority of South Carolina’s Supreme Court, which ruled Thursday that the state law is constitutional.
The state-level ruling said districts could use other sources of funding, such as the millions in federal COVID relief funds that Beaufort County School District has received.
The S.C. Department of Education released a statement later Thursday that the state Supreme Court decision doesn’t affect the federal ruling, and that school districts can still implement mask mandates.
“My position on this has been, as elected officials, we’ve got to do what the law tells us to do,” Ingrid Boatright said. “The legislature did not want us putting masks, and that tied our hands. Now I don’t understand clearly what the law asks us to do.”
Some board members said they were satisfied with the district’s current COVID prevention strategies. Others said they were concerned about obtaining medical exemptions for disabled students and those with IEPs — individual education plans — who can’t wear masks.
“I’ve heard from parents of students with IEPs that say masking is not appropriate for their child,” said Cathy Robine, a former special education teacher who joined remotely and said she had to leave the meeting prior to the vote. “I can think of several disabilities where masking is not viable. To me, students with IEPs need the ability to opt out of a mask mandate because it conflicts with their disabilities.”
The district and Beaufort County at large have seen a significant decrease in COVID infections over the last month, following a spike in August that broke records for the number of new daily infections in the county.
District risk manager Jenny Staton said Thursday that the district has recorded 1,341 COVID-19 cases this school year, 1,216 among students and 125 among staff.
District spokesperson Candace Bruder said Thursday that between Sept. 18 and 24, the district recorded 11 staff infections, 69 student infections, 30 active staff quarantines and 1,224 active student quarantines.
That’s down from a peak of 230 infections and 2,888 active quarantines between Aug. 30 and Sept. 5.
This is the third time the board has discussed implementing a mask mandate. William Smith originally made the motion to implement a mandate at the board’s Aug. 17 meeting; it was postponed so the board could hear legal and public health advice.
The board held a follow-up meeting on Aug. 23 that lasted nearly seven hours as 66 public commenters addressed the board before members went into private session to receive legal and public health advice.
Of those 66 commenters, 33 were against a mask mandate and 32 were in favor; one commenter did not address a mandate but said she wanted a full-time virtual option for students.
When the board came out of private session, it voted 9-2 to table its decision until the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled on a lawsuit from Richland 2 School District, which was done Thursday.