As Midlands schools reopen, problems arise in other SC districts during COVID surge
While students in most Richland and Lexington county schools return to classes this week, at least three other South Carolina districts have been opened for more than a week. All three have struggled with a rising number of coronavirus cases.
The Pickens County school district went to all-virtual classes nine days into its school year. In those nine days, 163 students had tested positive for COVID-19, one was hospitalized, and 634 students were in quarantine, The State reported. Also as of Friday, 26 employees had tested positive, and four had been hospitalized in the last month. Thirty employees were quarantined..
Monday, some Pickens County parents and their children gathered at the district office to protest the move to all-virtual classes and started a petition to reopen school buildings.
Pickens County has 24 schools and 16,400 students.
In the Kershaw County school district, the number of infections has grown since school started on Aug. 5. At least 185 students and staff members had tested positive as of Tuesday, the district reported. About 8% of students, or 902 of the district’s 10,992 students, are quarantined. The majority of students and staff infected or quarantined are in elementary schools. On Aug. 12, The State reported that 136 students and staff had tested positive and 570 students were quarantined.
In Florence County District 4 in Timmonsville, which began class on Aug. 2, all 5-year-old kindergarten classes were quarantined by Aug. 13, as was a second grade class and all 7th and 8th grade students at Johnson Middle School, the district said.
No school districts or the local governments in Pickens, Kershaw or Florence counties require students and faculty in schools to wear masks. To require face masks, a district would have to defy a one-year law written into the state budget that forbids any school district receiving state funds from enforcing a mask mandate.
Richland School District One and the Charleston County school district have already gone against the law and are mandating masks in schools. Columbia and Richland County also passed ordinances requiring masks in schools.
This story was originally published August 17, 2021 at 12:46 PM.