Jasper County school board requires masks for students, staff. What you should know
Jasper County’s school board voted unanimously Monday night to require masks for students and staff.
The mandate, which went into effect Tuesday, is the latest development in a school year that’s been interrupted by widespread quarantines, moves to remote-only learning, bus driver shortages and mandatory COVID testing for unmasked employees.
“We follow the recommendations by scientists, and we protect not just our students but everyone who works in the district,” school board member Joyce Gerald said during Monday’s meeting.
The mandate is in effect for the next 30 days, and the board will have the opportunity to revisit it at next month’s meeting.
According to data from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, Jasper County School District has reported 88 confirmed or probable COVID-19 infections among students since the beginning of the school year, and between 11 and 17 staff infections in the same time frame.
Since school began on Aug. 16, 236 students have been quarantined — about 9% of the district’s total enrollment — along with between 20 and 23 staff. (DHEC does not report exact quarantine or infection numbers for a school when the number is between one and four, instead marking it with an asterisk.)
Jasper County School District first shut down Ridgeland-Hardeeville High School on Aug. 23 after the district recorded 24 COVID infections and 96 quarantines — including the school’s entire football, volleyball and cheerleading teams — in the first week of school.
The rest of the district followed Aug. 30 “due to the surge of the contagious virus, COVID-19 Delta variant in our community and schools, and the number of students and staff in quarantine,” Superintendent Rechel Anderson said in a press release at the time.
The schools returned to in-person learning on Sept. 13, with an announcement that the district would randomly test students and staff for COVID.
Students and staff who are unmasked are tested weekly, whether they are vaccinated or unvaccinated. Students will be tested “with parental consent,” according to a press release from the district.
The district partnered with DocGo, a mobile medical services company, and DHEC to provide COVID-19 testing services. The district and its partners are using a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
What about the rest of the Lowcountry?
Both Jasper and Hampton County school districts have adopted mask mandates after the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals last week denied an attempt by S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster and Attorney General Alan Wilson to keep school districts from enforcing mask mandates.
McMaster and Wilson were appealing U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis’ temporary restraining order pausing a state law that prevented 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.
Beaufort County’s school board rejected a mask mandate on Sept. 30 in a 4-5-1 vote, with one member absent. This was prior to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling; there is not a mask mandate discussion listed on the board’s draft agenda for next week’s meeting.