Richland 1 defies state government, requires masks for upcoming school year

Richland 1 students will be required to wear masks when they return to classes Wednesday, the school board decided Monday in a unanimous vote.

The policy puts the district on a collision course with a one-year law rolled into the state budget that blocks schools from mandating masks. It’s unclear if the policy would be upheld in court, and state officials have indicated they will challenge similar local government policies that mandate masks in schools, The State reported previously.

“No, the masks will not stop COVID, but it sure enough shut down the flu...last year,” board Vice Chair Cheryl Harris said at a Monday meeting.

Sandy Broussard, Richland 1’s chief of teaching and learning, painted a grim portrait of the COVID-19 situation heading into the school year during the called Monday meeting. Saturday, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control reported 2,541 new cases, which follows a surge in case numbers not seen since the surge in winter. If the coronavirus situation last year was as bad as it was today, Richland 1 would have online-only classes, Superintendent Craig Witherspoon said Monday.

If a school district is found to be in violation of the one-year law, termed a proviso, the district could face a loss of state funding.

Richland 1 receives $101 million from the state government, district Chief Operating Officer Ed Carlon said at the meeting.

Board members were aware of the threat of lost funding. Their move to require masks, they acknowledge, is a risk.

“When considering what the district may decide to do, can the governor just push a button and say no to this funding?” board member Angela Clyburn said. “I would think we have some kind of defense.”

Richland 1 attorney Williams said she “couldn’t guarantee” the state government wouldn’t retaliate, but said, “We still have the courts.”

The district is also stuck between a Republican legislature that has opposed mask mandates and a Democratic city and county that wants to allow mask rules, said Board Chair Aaron Bishop.

“We know the city ordinance is on one side. The state is on the other. We’re here in the middle,” Bishop said.

Before the vote, the board met in executive session — in which board members are allowed to discuss certain items outside public view — to get advice from an attorney on possible repercussions if the district runs afoul the one-year law that prevents school districts from mandating masks at schools.

By meeting in executive session, board member Beatrice King said she believed the board was violating the Freedom of Information Act, which requires public meetings, with a few exceptions, to be held in the open.

For weeks, Richland 1 has been trying to break free of the proviso that district officials say tied the district’s hands in dealing with a pandemic.

“As a board member I’m a little puzzled because we all took an oath, and the oath is to protect children,” Harris said during last week’s meeting. “It’s hard to do my job when I’m being blocked.”

Local resistance against the proviso has increased in recent weeks. The City of Columbia passed an emergency ordinance requiring students and staff at all day cares, elementary schools and middle schools to wear masks. S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson has said that ordinance violates state law.

Also Monday, Richland County Council passed an emergency ordinance requiring all day cares or schools with students between the ages of 2 and 14 to mandate masks. The County Council meeting was held at the same time as the school board meeting.

Even outside the S.C. Midlands, state lawmakers have faced resistance. Charleston County Schools also will require masks at school.

Richland 1’s policy may differ, legally, from policies made by Richland County Council and the City of Columbia, district attorney Susan Williams said. While the city and county created policies after the proviso was enacted, Richland 1’s face mask policy from 2020 was never repealed, Williams said. The proviso may prevent a policy from being implemented, but may not necessarily require a school board to create a new policy, Williams said.

Teacher advocacy group Palmetto State Teachers Association called on S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster to block the proviso banning mask mandates. Through a spokesman, McMaster said he lacks the power to overturn state law and believes parents, not schools, should decide whether children need to wear masks, The State reported previously.

This story was originally published August 16, 2021 at 8:16 PM.