Horry Schools ‘watching everything carefully’ but won’t require masks during COVID surge
COVID-19 cases are sweeping across South Carolina and the nation in record numbers, prompting some school districts to move classes online or tighten other restrictions.
Horry County Schools (HCS) won’t do the same as it resists a mask requirement months after a court ruling allowed districts to implement mandates in South Carolina.
Horry County Board of Education chairman Ken Richardson, who sets the agenda for school board meetings, said he wouldn’t have the board vote on a mask requirement at Monday’s upcoming meeting. The responsibility of the day-to-day operations of the district, including pandemic response protocols, falls in the hands of Superintendent Rick Maxey, Richardson said.
“He’s managing that and keeping up with it, and if he decided that he needed to go a different direction, he could do that without having a board meeting and having to vote,” Richardson said.
Maxey isn’t considering instating a mask requirement across the district, according to HCS spokesperson Lisa Bourcier.
“As we have done throughout the school year, we will continue to monitor cases and quarantines on a school-by-school level,” Bourcier wrote in an email to The Sun News.
The surge in the Myrtle Beach area has been extreme enough for Tidelands Health to call in medics from the National Guard as hospital bed capacity pushes past 90% across Horry County, bolstered by nearly 100 COVID-19 positive patients, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
“We’re seeing a surge,” Richardson said. “But I want you to know that Dr. Maxey and his staff are watching everything carefully. Our number one goal is to get the kids educated, keep them in school and keep them safe.”
Horry County’s surge isn’t unique. Across the country, cases are rising. And as a result, students in grade school through college are having their school years upended once again due to the pandemic. Coastal Carolina University reinstated its mask mandate and schools across the country have switched to virtual classes or administered coronavirus testing to stay in schools.
Students are back in school, many of them maskless, even as Horry County and the district both face spikes in COVID-19 cases likely spurred by the rapidly spreading omicron variant and holiday gatherings. More than 400 HCS students are currently COVID-19 positive, along with 120 staff members, according to district data.
“As predicted by national and state health officials, an increase in positivity rates was anticipated after the holidays,” Bourcier wrote. ”We are seeing this increase as well.”
The district has resisted a mask mandate for months, initially citing a proviso in the state budget in which districts were barred from using state funding to enforce such requirements. But once a judge ruled South Carolina school districts were allowed to enforce mask requirements, some districts implemented them. HCS did not, leaving the decision of whether to mask up or not in the hands of students and their parents.
Horry County school board convenes at its regularly scheduled meeting Monday, where Maxey will give an update on the district, including its COVID-19 circumstances.
