Columbia tries again to mandate masks in schools amid COVID-19
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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 Columbia City Council on Wednesday unanimously passed a citywide mask mandate as COVID cases remain high in South Carolina, and schools across the capital city are included in the measure.
Columbia’s move came just more than a week after the city and the state attorney general’s office battled in the state Supreme Court over masks in schools.
The city’s 30-day ordinance, passed during an emergency meeting Wednesday evening, requires residents to wear face masks inside of commercial businesses or other indoor venues open to the public in the city. It also said residents are required to wear masks “in situations where distances between people change frequently, such as a busy sidewalk, waiting area or popular outdoor area where it is impractical or impossible” to maintain social distancing.
Fines for violating the ordinance would be $100. As during the city’s first mask mandate from April 2020 to May 2021, marshals with the city’s fire department will enforce the measure. Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin said the ordinance is effective immediately, but there will likely be a period of time in which marshals will offer warnings before they start writing tickets.
And the ordinance requires masks for students and faculty in schools or day cares citywide.
The inclusion of schools in Columbia’s mandate could rekindle an argument that has been roiling in the court system recently. In early August, the city passed a measure requiring students and faculty to wear masks in some city schools. This came despite a one-year law, called a proviso, that the state Legislature included in the 2021-22 state budget that said money from that budget could not be used to enforce mask mandates in schools. Republican state Attorney General Alan Wilson subsequently sued the city over its school mask mandate.
The state’s highest court sided with the attorney general last week.
“In this declaratory judgment action, 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 Supreme Court said in a summary of its decision posted on the court’s internet site.
An essential piece of the court’s decision was that school officials would inevitably be involved with the enforcement of the ordinance, and therefore state budget funding would be used toward the effort.
But in its new ordinance, the city directly states that the measure would be enforced by officials from the city fire department, and that no school officials or personnel are required to help with enforcement. The city also notes that no school official shall expend any funds from the 2021-22 state appropriations bill toward the enforcement or promotion of the city’s measure.
“The city is solely responsible for announcing, requiring and enforcing this ordinance,” the emergency measure reads.
The ordinance said that fire marshals would “periodically” visit schools to check on masks.
“No public school employee shall use any paid work time or work equipment to report any need for enforcement,” the ordinance reads.
Columbia’s previous school-related mask ordinance applied only to elementary and middle schools, but the current measure applies to all K-12 schools in the city.
Benjamin said during the Wednesday emergency meeting that he believes, with the revisions, the city’s measure, as it relates to schools, complies with the state budget proviso and the Supreme Court’s recent decision.
The mayor on Wednesday said he thinks it will take multiple tools, including masks and vaccines, to tamp down the virus.
“We can do this,” Benjamin said. “We’ve been leading from the front every step of the way. We’ve been doing it together. Let’s beat this thing together. Get vaccinated.”
The state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control has continued to announce thousands of new COVID-19 cases everyday. On Thursday, it announced more than 3,400 new cases and another 55 deaths.
This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 5:46 PM.
