Midlands school board will meet to consider change to student face mask rules
A Midlands, S.C., school board will hold a special meeting Tuesday to consider changes to the district’s student face mask policy.
Lexington-Richland 5 announced the meeting Monday afternoon. Board members will convene at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to hear from members of the public, then take action on “revisions or deletion” of the policy.
The called meeting comes as the school year winds down, but as pressure mounts in many school districts to do away with policies requiring students wear face masks for most of the school day as a precaution against COVID-19.
Parents at recent school board meetings have asked for the choice to decide whether their children should wear masks to school. Last week, Gov. Henry McMaster said continuing face mask requirements are the “height of ridiculosity” as more teachers and others have had the opportunity to get vaccinated.
The S.C. Department of Education has said it does not plan to change its requirement that students wear masks while attending in-person classes this school year.
School board chair Jan Hammond said the governor’s comments had put the mask issue back at the forefront, and partly necessitated Tuesday’s called meeting.
“I get frustrated that the governor has a news conference and pushes this back on us, the municipalities and counties, and then says he might issue an executive order” removing local mask mandates, Hammond said.
But other board members had also questioned mask requirements after the district held two recent vaccination events for teachers and staff, and Hammond said a majority favored a dedicated meeting on the topic rather than have mask discussion swamp all other school business at their regular meeting next Monday.
Hammond said she had concerns about students having to wear masks on school playgrounds during recess, but she also worries what legal liability could fall on the district if it loosens mask rules. She’s also asked the superintendent and state officials to clarify how much the district could deviate from state guidelines.
Currently, the Education Department requires students and staff in public schools to wear a mask when entering a school building, moving through hallways, during pickup and drop off, while boarding, riding and exiting buses, and when social distancing is not possible.
Students may only remove their face coverings when directed to by a teacher or administrator while in the classroom or during special activities outside the classroom, according to the policy posted on its website.
Schools are now required to offer in-person classes five days a week after the S.C. Legislature passed a school reopening act last month.
Masks are the next flash point in a long-running disagreement about when and how schools should resume normal operations even as the virus that cause COVID-19 continues to circulate. One parents group put up a billboard in Chapin last month calling for mask requirements to be loosened, WIS TV reported.
The latest COVID-19 numbers reported by the district say two students and one staff member have recently tested positive for the coronavirus, while five more staffers and 93 students are in precautionary quarantines.
No COVID-19 vaccine is currently approved for children under the age of 16.
Nevertheless, parents and board members will decide on Tuesday just how comfortable they are with changing mask requirements. Although the meeting room at district headquarters has limited seating due to COVID-19 precautions, Hammond said she’d insure as many people as can make it to Tuesday’s meeting will have a chance to speak.
“It’s important for the public to hear this debate,” she said. “And I have no idea which way it will go.”
The Lexington-Richland 5 school board meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the school district office, 1020 Dutch Fork Road, Irmo.
This story was originally published May 3, 2021 at 3:36 PM.
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