SC Supreme Court to soon rule on K-12 school mask rule as COVID cases surge
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COVID-19 mask news in Midlands schools
Curious to learn what local schools are doing about face masks as COVID-19 rises in South Carolina? Here’s a roundup of the latest updates from elementary schools to universities around the state.
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The legal battle over whether local authorities can require South Carolina public school students to wear face masks to stem the surge of COVID-19 spilled into two hearings Tuesday before the state Supreme Court.
The five justices announced no decisions as to whether the city of Columbia can require masks in schools and whether a Richland County school district can do the same. But the justices indicated they are well aware of the seriousness of the cases, as the rulings could have wider implications for how the General Assembly writes one-year policy measures into the state budget.
“Rest assured, we are not medical professionals, we are not politicians,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald Beatty said. “And any decision that we may make will be based purely on the rule of law.”
For weeks, the city of Columbia, Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson, the governor and state lawmakers have traded barbs over a state measure that aims to ban mask mandates in schools. The provision was sponsored by state Rep. Stewart Jones, R-Laurens, who successfully got it included in the state budget that started July 1.
On one side, proponents argue the requirement should be left up to parents and say there’s no way to separate state dollars from public schools.
“My view is very clear,” Gov. Henry McMaster told reporters Tuesday. “I think that that law that was passed as part of the budget is good law. A strong law is clear law, and I agree with it.”
On the other hand, opponents contend public schools can use money from elsewhere — whether by local money, private donors or federal relief — to require masks, adding the lack of masks discriminates against students with compromised health.
“There may not be a way to make facilities 100% safe, but there is a way to make them safer and that is exactly what is not accomplished by a ban on mask mandates,” said Skyler Hutto, an attorney representing an Orangeburg parent. “The General Assembly has not only prevented some of the measures schools would want to take, but they have made schools less safe through that prevention.”
AG vs. Columbia
For one hour Tuesday, the South Carolina Supreme Court peppered lawyers for the Attorney General’s office and the city of Columbia. They listened intently as one lawyer argued that the city of Columbia’s ordinance violated a one-year state budget measure known as a proviso and as another said local authorities should have jurisdiction to make decisions for their communities.
Earlier in August, Columbia City Council passed a measure that requires students and faculty at 43 elementary and middle schools and day cares in the city to wear masks.
The city’s ordinance lays out $100 fines for violations of its school mask requirement, and says the person receiving the fine could be a “a principal, vice principal, administrator, staff, owner, manager or supervisor.”
Deputy Solicitor General Emory Smith told the court that the city did not have the authority to enact an ordinance that requires students in all public school and day care in city limits to wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are here not for purposes of weighing in on the health care debates or the wisdom of the policy behind the proviso,” Smith said. “We understand that there are many concerns out there in the community about the threat of COVID-19. But we are here to argue the law, and we believe the law is on our side.”
The city argued, among other things, that the proviso is misplaced, as it has little to do with taxing and spending state dollars.
“What the city of Columbia has done here is taken the obligation of funding and enforcement upon itself,” said attorney Chris Kenney, who works in state Sen. Dick Harpootlian’s law firm. “With respect to what the General Assembly has done in (the one-year budget law), all they have said is, ‘Do not spend our money on a mask mandate,’ and the city’s ordinance complies with that entirely.”
SC leaders vs. Richland 2
In the second hearing, lawyers for the Richland 2 school district and an Orangeburg public school parent went on the offensive, saying the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the school year so far sending 1,220 students into quarantine.
They argued the budget measure adopted by the Legislature was unconstitutional on multiple grounds, suing Senate President Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, and House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington. They also sued state schools Superintendent Molly Spearman.
The proviso in question is “unconstitutionally vague” and written in confusing language, attorney Carl Solomon said.
“If the Legislature had the authority to put a ban on mask mandates in the budget, they would have said that, and they would have done so,” he argued.
Opposing Solomon and his co-counsel Hutto, an attorney for Lucas told the justices that although there is “undoubtedly an emotional appeal” to the idea that districts should be able to implement mask requirements, the law is not on the district’s side.
The Supreme Court “does not sit as a super legislature,” said attorney Susan McWilliams, explaining that if the justices were to rule in favor of the school district, they would be in effect making policy and that is not the role of the courts.
The General Assembly is the proper branch of government to appropriate funds and set policy, she said.
School mask battles
The Supreme Court arguments are not the only place where battles over mask mandates have been playing out.
Recently, a group of parents with disabled children and a disability rights group filed suit in federal court against state officials, asserting those state officials who ban requirements for masks are jeopardizing the health and lives of children who are particularly susceptible to severe illness from COVID-19.
“Prohibiting schools from taking reasonable steps to protect the health of their students forces parents to make an impossible choice: their child’s education or their child’s health,” said Susan Mizner of the ACLU, the civil rights group suing McMaster, Wilson, Spearman and seven local school boards.
On Monday, following through on a warning from President Joe Biden to governors, the Biden administration opened a civil rights investigation into five states, including South Carolina, over mask measures.
“Some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures as children wearing masks in school into political disputes for their own political gain,” Biden said last week. “Some are trying to take power away from local educators by banning masks in school.”
And the battle has gone national, from Florida to Texas — other states with rising COVID-19 cases.
South Carolina is reeling from yet another wave of COVID-19 cases, sparked by the rise of the delta variant.
On Tuesday alone, the state health department reported 4,343 new coronavirus cases and 37 deaths.
The state hasn’t recorded fewer than 1,000 cases on any day since July 24, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases to more than 735,000 and the state’s death toll to almost 10,600.
Children 10 and under make up 16% of the new cases, and 22% of the new cases are people between the ages of 11-20.
In court Tuesday, Beatty told the assembled lawyers and online viewers none of the justices were wearing face masks.
“That is because we are all vaccinated,” he said.
Reporter Joseph Bustos contributed to this article.
This story was originally published August 31, 2021 at 4:35 PM.
