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South Carolina students will again be required to wear masks on school buses starting Monday as COVID-19 cases among children and students are rising rapidly. The state Education Department told schools in July they did not have to make students on buses wear masks. But the agency changed its mind in a letter Thursday, bringing it into line with federal health rules about masks on buses.
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South Carolina's Latest COVID Surge is Flooding Hospitals, Exhausting Medics, and Affecting ChildrenDoctors and health professionals are frustrated by what they say is a preventable surge in Delta variant cases. Their message – wear masks and get vaccinated – hasn't changed, and they want more people to listen to it.
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A growing number of school districts in South Carolina are defying a provision from state lawmakers banning mandatory face coverings for students. But not all. Many districts are afraid the General Assembly will withhold state budget money if they do so. Lawmakers passed the ban mostly along party lines in June, when the state was seeing 20 times fewer new COVID-19 cases. Many districts and some lawmakers with second thoughts hope a state Supreme Court challenge to the mask rule will make things clearer. But there is no indication when the justices might rule.
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The American Civil Liberties Union, representing disability rights groups and parents of children with disabilities, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday over a South Carolina law that bans school districts from requiring face masks, arguing the ban excludes vulnerable students from public schools.
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On this episode of the South Carolina Lede for August 21, 2021, we look at the current COVID-19 situation in the state, including the debate over masks in schools, the latest case numbers, vaccination recommendations for pregnant women, and much more.
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South Carolina's health agency has become the latest group to ask lawmakers to make it clear that school districts can require students to wear masks without losing state budget money or any other penalties. The General Assembly put the mask ban item into the budget in early June when South Carolina was seeing an average of 150 COVID-19 cases a day. Ten weeks later, the state is seeing about 3,520 new cases each day.
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South Carolina’s top prosecutor on Thursday sued the state’s capital city over a school mask mandate that officials allege violates state law.
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Some school districts and counties, and the City of Columbia have defied the state prohibition and ordered mask mandates in schools sparking growing pressure on the General Assembly to meet to repeal the prohibition.
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Parents, teachers and medical professionals debate a state law that prohibits schools from requiring masks even as the Delta variant surges with kids heading back to class.
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More public colleges and universities in South Carolina are requiring people wear masks on campus to prevent the spread of COVID-19 after the state's Supreme Court ruled the schools can legally do so.