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COLUMBIA, SC (AP) – In recent weeks, South Carolina has set hospitalization records for COVID-19 and new cases have approached record levels last winter. Classes, schools and entire districts have gone virtual, leaving frustrated parents and teachers giving up weeks in the school year.
Since the end of the state of emergency in South Carolina on June 7, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster argued that only parents should decide whether children wear masks in schools, even as new cases in the state have risen from an average of 150 a day to over 5,000 .
“We spiked football too early. Instead of continuing to listen to medical professionals and interpret the data, he was guided by talking points from the Republican Governors Association, ”Democratic State Senator Marlon Kimpson of Charleston said of McMaster .
The Republican-dominated legislature added the provision that effectively ended most school mask terms despite advice from their own state health and education officials, who said the ban statewide masks in schools took away one of their best tools to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Now teachers, students and parents are grappling with the fallout as more young people contract the delta variant, forcing nearly two dozen schools and two entire districts – a number that changes daily, typically to the rise – to return to online learning within a month of returning in person. .
Teacher Nicole Walker said a ripple ran through her high school class every time the phone rang and a student was sent to the nurse: Does their friend have COVID-19? Will they have to quarantine themselves? The disruption breeds fear and uncertainty in the classroom, she said.
“This is one of those times when adults should have risen up and been able to do the right thing and really be able to create an environment where kids felt safer,” Walker said. . “We failed them miserably, in my opinion. “
Walker helped create the SC for Ed teachers’ organization, which advocates for better wages and working conditions. Now educators are explaining how districts fail to provide protective gear in classrooms and how more and more teachers are resigning just weeks after the start of the school year, leaving more students crammed in. the classrooms.
Alison Harding noted those full classrooms and the few second-graders wearing masks when she dropped off her son on his first day at Daniel Island School in Charleston last month. The 7-year-old has neuromuscular disease, uses a wheelchair and needs devices to help him breathe.
She pulled him out of school the next day.
Now he is waiting at his home for the district to provide educational services as she cannot risk him contracting the virus, especially as the state affected nearly 2,600 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in early September, a record high. .
“If the hospitals are full, now is not the right time for him. He shouldn’t be going. It’s dangerous, ”Harding said.
Much of the conflict surrounds the rule of the mask. While not an outright ban, the provision prevents school districts from using state money to enforce a rule requiring masks. Almost everyone in a school has their salary paid with government money.
Lawmakers blocked the proposal in the state budget two days after McMaster ended the state of emergency. The governor has sometimes suggested that masks do little to protect themselves from the virus or that they cause developmental delays in young children.
Although the state’s top health officials have staged presentations in recent weeks to show this to be false, the position persists with McMaster and a number of Republican lawmakers.
“I just refuse to help and encourage the government to take personal health decisions over by politicians and bureaucrats who clearly can’t handle it the way it is – and some of them are making it worse. things lying to us along the way, ”Senator Shane said. Martin, a Republican from Spartanburg County.
But as conditions have deteriorated, some lawmakers on both sides are pushing for a special session repeal the rule and allow local governments to make decisions based on their situation. The state’s Supreme Court is also considering legal action over whether the mask provision is legal.
“I’m frustrated with the governor, with the stupid clause, I’m frustrated that the school board won’t stand up and do what’s right. I wish we could take the political character out of it and treat it like any other public health issue would be treated, ”said Brandy Sutherland of Summerville, whose first and seventh graders had to return to virtual school for a while. at least a week after a year of struggling with online courses.
A few districts, mostly smaller, have adopted their own mask requirements.
“I don’t know how it became a debate. I don’t care if it offers 1% protection. That’s 1% more than I don’t have today, ”Florence School District 1 superintendent Richard O’Malley told his board in August before agreeing to a mask rule. two months.
The Florence district has less than a third of the reported COVID-19 cases in Lancaster County, which has a similar number of students and more than 800 cases since the start of the school year less than a month.
But in meetings across the state, most districts are uncomfortable going against state rule, although it is unclear what penalties the districts are facing. who infringe could be faced.
Harding attended the Berkeley County School District reunion in late August to tell them about her son in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a temporary mask.
“Last week, an anti-masker told me: ‘It’s sad that my children are asked to protect yours. It is not their job. It’s your job, ”she told board members. “Since when is it sad to teach our children empathy, compassion and selflessness while protecting the vulnerable? “
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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.
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