Want to protect children from COVID-19? Require masks in SC schools, state health director says

“I have been disappointed in DHEC’s failure to use its full power to work toward containing COVID. I know masking is not a cure-all, but it the best available tool available for elementary & middle schools. It is highly recommended by DHEC, the CDC, and the State Superintendent of Education. But masking works best when everybody is masked. It needs to be mandatory in school settings.”

The above quote came from a parent who wants to be able to send their children to a safe school and asked us – as the state’s public health authority – to help them do so.

At the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), we have been receiving a lot of messages like this, from both parents and medical professionals. Doctors and parents alike understand that requiring everyone who is in a school setting to wear a mask is an important part of preventing COVID-19, protecting our children, and keeping our children in school.

Vaccination remains the best way to defeat COVID-19, and we need to continue to encourage parents to have their eligible children vaccinated and to get vaccinated themselves. However, since many school children are not yet eligible to be vaccinated and only 23 percent of those who are eligible (those aged 12 years or older) are fully vaccinated, vaccination alone will not prevent COVID-19 in our schools. As presented at a recent DHEC Board meeting, the evidence is clear: requiring masks in schools is both effective and safe.

Having children in school is very important both for their education and so they can socialize with other children. We have already lost too much in-person school time over the past 18 months. Unfortunately, because the Delta variant is much more easily spread to and by children than previous COVID-19 variants, we are now seeing thousands of children quarantined out of school and entire schools and school districts having to go back to virtual education. Simply put, COVID-19 is out of control in our schools.

As the parent above wisely notes, requiring everyone in a school environment is not a cure-all, but it will help control COVID-19 in schools and keep our children in school, where they need to be.

Unfortunately, a law passed at the last minute by our Legislature, known as Proviso 1.108, prevents local school authorities from requiring masks in schools. Passed when COVID-19 was much less of a threat, some have said that this law gives parents choice. In reality, however, it does exactly the opposite. It takes choice away from parents – those parents who want to choose to protect their children from the known danger of COVID-19 by sending them to a school that is safer because the wearing of masks is required for all.

School leaders across South Carolina are facing tough decisions about the safety of their students, faculty, and staff, and several have chosen temporary returns to virtual-only learning. None of these decisions are easy, and the pressure school leaders are under from their communities is significant.

This is why DHEC, its Board, and many other leaders have recommended that the Legislature reconvene and revise or repeal Proviso 1.108. Especially in light of this week’s state Supreme Court decision upholding the legality of Proviso 1.108, this action is imperative to protect South Carolina’s children and schools. Let us give parents a real choice – the ability to choose to protect their child from harm and send them to a safe school.