‘A sad day for children’: Columbia mayor reacts to court ruling on school masks
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin said it was a “sad day for children” after the South Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the city’s requirement of face masks in elementary and middle schools.
The court effectively ruled Thursday that the city cannot issue a school mask mandate to protect younger students from the COVID-19 virus in the city’s public schools and day care facilities.
The ruling was unanimous, but several justices added their own explanations of the opinion.
“The Court finds the City of Columbia’s ordinances mandating face masks in public schools that serve grades K-12 are in direct conflict with Proviso 1.108 of the 2021-2022 Appropriations Act,” the state’s highest court said in a summary of its decision posted on the court’s website. The one-year budget law referred to was passed in late June by the General Assembly, declaring that no state funds could be used to enforce mask mandates in public schools.
Benjamin was disappointed in the ruling.
“This is a sad day for children in South Carolina,” the mayor said. “What is even sadder is the people who have been elected to protect them, who should always and only act to keep them healthy, educated and alive, won’t fight for them. With record numbers of our children falling ill to this deadly virus, we pray for our children.”
The mayor said he would keep fighting for children in the city’s schools.
“The city of Columbia’s stance is the same now as it was before we enacted our emergency ordinance requiring masks in our elementary and middle schools: we will always act to preserve and protect the health and safety of our children,” Benjamin said.
Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who has long insisted that it should be a parent’s choice whether a child wears a mask in school, lauded the decision.
“The South Carolina Supreme Court has come to a sound conclusion based on the rule of law — a parent’s right to decide what’s best for their child is now definitively protected by state law,” McMaster tweeted. “I would again encourage anyone eligible to receive the vaccine to get vaccinated.”
Wilson also was pleased with the Supreme Court ruling.
“We appreciate the Supreme Court’s quick ruling and its confirmation of our legal arguments,” Wilson said Thursday. “The court emphasized what we’ve been saying all along, that we are not arguing mask policy, we are arguing the rule of law. The court has confirmed that a city ordinance cannot conflict with state law.”
On Aug. 5, at the urging of Benjamin, the Columbia City Council approved by a 5-1 vote an emergency ordinance requiring masks be worn at elementary and middle schools in the city limits, and at day cares that serve children between the ages of 2 and 14.
The city also released a list of 43 schools inside the city limits that fell under the new mask mandate.
On Aug. 19, Wilson filed suit with the state Supreme Court, asking it to rule on whether the city of Columbia had the authority to issue a mask mandate for students. The lawsuit referred to the one-year law included in the state budget bill that the Legislature passed in late June.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 continued to rip through South Carolina. The state now leads the nation in new COVID cases per capita. The state Department of Health and Environmental Control announced another 5,200 new cases on Thursday, along with 60 new deaths.
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 3:45 PM.
