Wearing masks at the SC Capitol is required, but many found a way around the order
Dozens of South Carolinians protesting against COVID-19 restrictions, many without masks, stood close together in the State House lobby and sang “God Bless America,” attempting to get lawmakers’ attention the first day back of session.
One lawmaker repeatedly coughed into a tissue, her mask cradling her chin, as others observed, and a handful of other lawmakers walked around their respective chambers without any masks on at all.
Security and law enforcement watched, unable to take any action.
Anyone who enters a state government building in South Carolina is required to wear a mask. But inside the state’s top government building — its seat of power — lawmakers and members of the public flouted the rule last week, their noses and mouths visible in plain air.
Though S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster’s authority doesn’t extend into chambers, protesters without masks inside told State House security they couldn’t wear a mask, invoking the health exemption in the governor’s order.
“It’s a public building, and we’re not going to kick people out and we should not kick people out. That would be equally wrong,” said House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland. “What I would ask is that if people want to show up, be considerate and wear a mask now. It’s not political. It’s just polite. That applies to members as well.”
On Tuesday, lawmakers return to the State House to take up more state business. That work will take place against the backdrop of a state still logging COVID-19 cases ranging from in the hundreds to over 1,000 each day and deaths ranging from single to double digits. It’s also a state in which health leaders say face masks are helping to curb another surge.
It’s unlikely that the enforcement of the state’s mask rule inside government buildings will change much.
Last Tuesday, protesters rallied outside the State House to demand that the governor roll back COVID-19 restrictions and then filed, many of them maskless, into the State House lobby between the House and Senate chambers, alarming many lawmakers, lobbyists and staff, who had returned to Columbia to wrap up legislative work that included seeing through bills to expand absentee voting and a budget.
The state’s Bureau of Protective Services, a faction of security staff under the wings of South Carolina’s public safety agency and who are charged with State House security, told The State this week that despite advisement to wear masks, protesters invoked a health exemption in the governor’s order that also says people “should not be required to provide documentation or any other form of proof of such a condition.”
The state’s public health agency follows national health recommendations that masks should not be work by children younger than age 2 and anyone who has trouble breathing or is unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance. A properly-selected mask poses no health risks from re-breathing carbon dioxide, said a spokeswoman with the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control.
However, visitors claiming that exemption tied the hands of security, many told The State.
But many lawmakers, who are back in town this week before they return to their districts to run for reelection, told The State they’re concerned about enforcement, pointing out that a majority of lawmakers are age 60 and older — an at-risk age group susceptible to contracting what is a potentially fatal virus that has already claimed the life of one longtime lobbyist.
“I am deeply concerned about it,” said state Sen. Mia McLeod, D-Richland, who has sickle cell anemia and returned to the State House for the first time this month. McLeod tweeted a photo of unmasked protesters standing in the lobby and criticized some of her colleagues for refusing to wear masks on the floor.
“It’s just like with anything else, if you don’t follow the rules, and you don’t abide by the laws, then there should be sanctions and punishments for that or you don’t get to do what you want to do. How insensitive. It’s just senseless. There’s zero enforcement and I don’t fault our security team because they are, and I’ve known them to be, very concerned and caring and compassionate.”
The protesters, McLeod said, put lawmakers, staff and employees at risk of catching the virus.
A DHEC spokesman said it’s difficult to say where someone may have contracted COVID-19, and the agency collects information on places people who have tested positive may have visited during the period of time they could have been infected.
The agency also is not conducting any contact tracing — a process by which DHEC can pinpoint where a spread started — at the Capitol.
Rutherford said the issue of enforcing the mask rule has been made more difficult by the politics driving the debate about masks.
“The shameful part is the fact that masks have been politicized to begin with and, because they’ve been politicized, there are people who believe they don’t have to wear a mask,” Rutherford said. “I go around quoting (U.S. House Majority Whip) Jim Clyburn all the time, ‘Wearing a mask is like saying, please and thank you.’ ”
Mask enforcement inside chambers
Requiring lawmakers to wear masks is a thorny issue mostly because it’s unclear who would enforce the rule on elected officials assembling to do state work.
The governor doesn’t control the chambers, and the mask rule is out of the hands of security and staff, a suggestion that ultimately, they say, must come down from chamber leaders Senate President Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, and House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington.
“Senators are grown ups; they can make up their own minds,” Peeler told The State Friday. “The 46 senators are cognizant of the situation and act accordingly. Here again, sometimes we may not act like it, but we’re grown ups.”
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said Peeler has encouraged senators to wear masks and spread out, and he has asked his Republican colleagues to do the same. The Senate is a smaller chamber, but, like the House, has room to spread out against the back wall, the outdoor room known as the antechamber, the upstairs balcony and sitting rooms.
“We’ve been trying to do our best to do the business that we need to do and also take precautions to ensure everyone’s safety,” Massey said. “The Senate does have some older members, some members who have compromised health. We’ve all been working together to address that.”
On Wednesday, lawmakers will hold a joint session in the House to elect agency, judicial and college candidates. Plans are already being worked out to limit the interaction between the 170 legislators, allowing senators, for example, to sit in the House balcony and sit in back rooms and watch proceedings on TVs or laptops before walking in to vote.
A BPS spokesman said visitors will continue to be screened as they enter the Capitol and will be advised to wear masks.
“The Speaker has worn and will continue to wear his mask at all times while he is in the chamber and strongly suggests all members do the same,” said the speaker’s spokeswoman, Nicolette Walters. “Staff have been directed to wear masks at all times while in the chamber and Blatt building,” where House members’ offices are located. “In addition to all other safety precautions being taken, masks and hand sanitizer are continuously available to all members and staff in the chamber as well.”
Lawmakers also are strongly encouraged to stay home if they feel sick.
State Rep. Lin Bennett, who was observed by several reporters this past week coughing frequently into a tissue with her mask below her chin, told The State the cough was related to a ragweed allergy, which she took medication for.
“I had cancer two years ago, so I’m going to do everything I can to protect myself from this thing. I have an at-risk husband, so I’m not going to bring this home to him,” Bennett, R-Charleston, told The State Thursday, saying she always wears her mask, tries to social distance and uses hand sanitizer “like it’s my own face lotion.”
Bennett said she has been tested for COVID-19 and each time has tested negative.
She had not been tested since session ended, when she spoke to a reporter from The State on Thursday.
“If I thought I was sick, I would have left.”
