Charleston and Columbia schools defied SC law to require masks. What will Horry do?
After Charleston County and Richland 1 school districts set the precedent by requiring masks and defying the state law to prohibit them, Horry County Schools (HCS) has a choice to make.
Masks won’t be required in schools despite rising coronavirus cases and updated guidance from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), district spokesperson Lisa Bourcier told The Sun News.
Under a proviso attached to the state budget by the General Assembly, school districts are barred from mandating masks in schools. HCS has encouraged them, but staff and students aren’t required to cover their faces. At a special board meeting Friday, DHEC’s board urged its director to contact lawmakers to alter the one-year law prohibiting mask requirements.
Richland 1 school board, based in Columbia, voted unanimously Wednesday to require masks in schools, and acknowledged the decision came with a risk. Schools that defy the one-year law known as a proviso could face losing funding. Richland 1 followed in the steps of the Charleston County School District, which voted 8-1 Monday to require masks for everyone in school buildings.
HCS’s latest remarks come as COVID-19 cases are rising in the county and within the school district itself. As of Thursday afternoon, the latest numbers available show more than 150 students have contracted the virus, only three days after the start of in-person classes.
School board chair Ken Richardson wouldn’t answer questions from The Sun News, and referred a reporter to Bourcier.
The district didn’t track cases over the summer, and the dashboard was resurrected with the start of classes, so it’s likely many of those students didn’t catch the virus at school, but it raises the question of how many students and staff members were exposed if those infected were in school buildings where masks were optional.
Along with the students who are COVID-positive, 27 staff members have the virus, and 52 are in quarantine, according to HCS data.
The district conducts contact tracing after a case is reported, and uses factors such as distance from an infected person and time of exposure to determine who needs to quarantine to avoid spreading the virus further.
Aside from some protocols like disinfecting commonly-touched surfaces and encouraging social distancing, this school year looks much like pre-pandemic years. The district offers a fully virtual option, but the deadline to enroll in online classes passed in April. Around 1,600 students across the district are enrolled in virtual school. Despite the high coronavirus spread, parents aren’t allowed to switch their child’s option.
