masks

South Carolina senators plan to return to the Statehouse next month for a special session on spending federal COVID-19 relief money and redistricting.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster says Kershaw County schools are a model in the state for fighting COVID-19 without requiring students to wear masks. The governor toured Camden Elementary School on Wednesday. He saw the thermal scanner that takes the temperature of every student as they walk in without them having to stop. The school also puts a lot of effort into contact tracing, only quarantining people who are within 3 feet of an infected person for more than 15 minutes. McMaster and Republican legislators back a one-year ban on school mask mandates put in the budget. State health officials have asked them to remove it.

South Carolina officials who have been sued over a law banning school districts from issuing face mask mandates say that they should be removed from pending litigation. That's the argument made in recent court filings from Gov. Henry McMaster, Attorney General Alan Wilson and others being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU is suing on behalf of disability rights groups and parents of South Carolina children with disabilities. The plaintiffs are challenging a budget measure passed this summer that prevents South Carolina districts from using any state funding to require masks in schools.

Porter Boever's family is part of of an ACLU lawsuit claiming South Carolina's budget proviso banning mask mandates in schools violates the American's with Disabilities Act

On this episode of the South Carolina Lede for September 11, 2021, we look at the continued debate between state leaders and the Biden administration over vaccination and mask mandates, hear about the struggles faced by frontline medical workers in the surge of the COVID-19 Delta variant, and reflect on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Some South Carolina cities are bringing back indoor mask requirements as this summer's COVID-19 outbreak in the state rivals the height of the pandemic last winter before vaccines were widely available. Three Midlands cities — Columbia, West Columbia and Cayce — all passed requirements that people wear masks indoors in public places except while eating and a few other exceptions. The emergency rules follow a ban by state lawmakers on mandatory masks in schools, for the most part. South Carolina is seeing abut 5,400 new COVID-19 cases a day. The state was reporting about 150 new cases a day in June when Gov. Henry McMaster ended a 14-month long COVID-19 state of emergency.

South Carolina's highest court on Thursday tossed out a school mask mandate in Columbia, saying it contradicts a state budget measure aimed at preventing face covering requirements.

South Carolina's highest court is considering two challenges to a state rule limiting the ability of school districts to require masks for students and educators. The state Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday over the state legislature's June decision to write a state budget item threatening school districts with withholding state money if they required masks. The city of Columbia and Richland 2 School District both oppose the measure. Their lawyers argued that a mask prohibition doesn't belong in the state budget as state law requires legislation to have one clear subject. Attorneys for the state said lawmakers can ban or allow masks because state funds pay for the salaries of teachers enforcing such mandates.

The Education Department says it's investigating five Republican-led states that have banned mask requirements in schools, saying the policies could amount to discrimination against students with disabilities or health conditions. The department's office for civil rights sent letters to education chiefs in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. Those states have barred schools from requiring masks among students and staff, a move that the department says could prevent some students from safely attending school.

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.