Beaufort mom asks: How can SC’s ‘good people’ oppose mask mandates that protect kids?
Currently in South Carolina, we are living in the Twilight Zone.
Parents and politicians are fighting against proven measures to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. Never in my lifetime would I dream I would see the day when neighbors were fighting for the right to intentionally harm others.
Mask mandates are a very hot topic right now.
I’m a Southern, Christian, (somewhat) conservative who is absolutely unequivocally and unapologetically in favor of mask mandates in South Carolina public schools. I also have a son with a disability, and I know our children with disabilities are, without question, protected under federal law with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act.
This topic should not be political, but it has become very political. There is a strong current of southern Christian conservatism flowing in these anti-mask groups.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best when he said, “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
Humanity- this is what it is all about.
This pandemic has killed some 700,000 people in the U.S. and 4.7 million people around the world in just 20 months. One out of every 500 Americans has now died from this virus.
We either know someone who has died from this virus or several of our friends do. It is beginning to literally hit home for all of us.
World-renowned hospitals like Duke, Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, and Cleveland Clinic all tell us that cloth and surgical masks significantly help to slow the spread of COVID-19.
On Sept. 28, the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina temporarily suspended the previous law (Proviso 1.108) that was written to prevent mask mandates in our public schools.
Federal Judge Mary Geiger Lewis said, “Years ago, ramps were added to schools to accommodate those with mobility-related disabilities so they could access a free public education. Today, a mask mandate works as a sort of ramp to allow children with disabilities access to their schools. Thus, the same legal authority requiring schools to have ramps requires that school districts have the option to compel people to wear masks at school.”
It is time for all parents in favor of mask mandates in our South Carolina public schools to call a meeting with their district school superintendents, school boards, and special education directors to ask for enforcement of mask mandates as a reasonable accommodation to protect our children with disabilities.
I implore each of you to fill out the online complaint form from the Office of Civil Rights and also reach out to the ACLU of South Carolina.
We must act now to save our families, our children, our friends, our teachers, our medically compromised, our elderly, our hospitals, our humanity.
Sending our kids to school with a mask will help significantly. Isn’t this what a good person would do? Wouldn’t a good person care about the welfare of others?
Would a good person want to see more teachers die? Would a good person want more children to get seriously sick, have long-term health conditions or even worse - die - from COVID-19?
What about your neighbor on chemo? What about the 10 year old boy in our public school district who is fighting a rare disorder with chronic lung disease? What about him?
Would a good person wear a mask to protect others?
Why is this even a question within our society today? In South Carolina, we are currently living in the Twilight Zone.
Emily Peláez is a mother of two children, ages 8 and 9, in Beaufort County Public Schools.
This story was originally published October 1, 2021 at 9:50 AM.