A judge ruled districts can require masks. Horry County Schools won’t vote on a mandate
South Carolina school districts can now require masks to stem the spread of COVID-19 following a ruling from a federal judge and an unsuccessful appeal from Gov. Henry McMaster and Attorney General Alan Wilson, but Horry County Schools (HCS) won’t vote on a mask mandate.
The district has long maintained it wouldn’t require masks, citing a one-year law in the state budget banning state funding to be used for enforcing mask mandates. But that law has been temporarily blocked in court, allowing districts to require masks, and HCS still won’t vote on a mask requirement.
A mask requirement isn’t listed as an item on the school board’s agenda for Monday’s meeting, its first since districts have been able to allow mask requirements. Following the federal judge’s ruling that a one-year law built into the state budget prohibiting state funding used to enforce mask mandates was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal laws, HCS board chair Ken Richardson said the district would seek legal advice and wouldn’t make comments or responses to the ruling until the Oct. 11 meeting.
“There is not a business item on the agenda regarding masks that will be voted on this evening,” spokesperson Lisa Bourcier wrote in an email to The Sun News.
Bourcier noted an item on the agenda marked “Update on COVID-19 Topics,” but said she’s “not sure what operational items will be discussed.” She wouldn’t say why a mask requirement isn’t on the agenda. The COVID-19 update is listed in the discussion portion of the agenda, not the business section, meaning the board likely won’t vote on any official action, unless a motion passes to add an item to the business section.
Richardson, who sets the agenda for board meetings, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The latest update on the mask issue comes as more than 3,400 HCS students and staff have had COVID-19, according to district data. Earlier this school year, as the delta variant surged and Horry County hospitals buckled under the demand of COVID hospitalizations, more than a quarter of the student body was in quarantine due to exposure.
Some HCS teachers and staff members have pushed for a mask mandate, warning of an “impending disaster” if the district didn’t do more to minimize the spread of the virus among a population that is largely ineligible for the COVID-19 vaccine due to their age. On the other side of the debate, some argue it should be the responsibility of the parents to decide if their student should cover their face at school or not, an argument McMaster has latched onto as well.
Monday’s meeting comes two weeks after the school board sparred with S.C. state senator Greg Hembree over the nuances of the mask proviso, with board member Sherrie Todd telling Hembree and other lawmakers they “not only tied our hands behind our back, you handcuffed us.”
“You took our authority away to be able to do what we felt was right, the right thing to do for our students and our staff … When I see children, I don’t see Democrats or Republicans, I see children and our children have been sick,” Todd said at the board’s Sept. 27 meeting.
This story was originally published October 11, 2021 at 11:00 AM.
