Columbia

South Carolina's highest court will hear two challenges to the state's refusal to let school districts require masks for students and teachers this week. The state Supreme Court has set aside two hours to hear the cases Tuesday. South Carolina lawmakers passed an item in the state budget in June threatening school districts with losing state money if they required masks. The local governments involved in the cases are Columbia and Richland 2 schools. They will likely argue that requiring or banning masks has no place in the state budget, a bill whose purpose is to raise and spend money. South Carolina law requires legislation to have one clear subject.

South Carolina's top prosecutor says state law prohibits the city of Columbia from instituting a school mask mandate intended to cover children who are age-ineligible for the coronavirus vaccine. Attorney General Alan Wilson wrote to Mayor Steve Benjamin that the recently-approved measure is "in conflict with state law and should either be rescinded or amended." Columbia leaders last week ratified an ordinance mandating the use of masks in the city's elementary and middle schools for at least the beginning of the school year. South Carolina is now averaging nearly 3,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day and hospitals in the state are filling up fast.

The mayor of South Carolina's capital city has issued a school mask mandate, which he says would protect vaccine-ineligible children amid the coronavirus's resurgence. Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin made that proclamation Wednesday. The effort puts the Democrat at odds with Republican Gov. Henry McMaster as well as the GOP-controlled Legislature, which recently barred such policies for all public schools. A new legislative measure prohibits mask mandates in South Carolina's public schools. Benjamin says he feels he has the authority to impose one for students in his city. Benjamin told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he plans to use city, not state, funds to provide masks in the city's elementary and middle schools.

The city council in Columbia, SC, has banned licensed therapists from offering conversion therapy to minors in attempts to change their sexual orientations or gender identities.

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