More than 500 students or staff with Charleston County School District reported testing positive for COVID-19 since the start of school Aug. 18, as district leaders say they are unable to enforce a face-mask requirement they passed as students were prepping for the new year.
According to Charleston County School District’s breakdown of positive COVID-19 cases, 516 students or staff have reported a positive test to the district since school began. The district logs daily numbers broken down by school for the past week, along with the previous week’s total and the previous cumulative cases to date. Cases reported to school officials are included in the tally.
Charleston County boasts the highest vaccination rate in the state, but has still seen a spike in cases in recent weeks. More than 60% of residents are fully vaccinated in Charleston County, where some 50,000 students attend classes with 3,400 teachers. More than 70% of residents have at least one shot, according to DHEC.
The district’s large high schools have seen some of the most new cases so far, according to those figures. Charleston County School of the Arts, R.B. Stall, Wando and West Ashley high schools all recorded more than 20 cases in the first week and a half of classes.
Elementary schools that are typically smaller, but full of young students who aren’t yet recommended for vaccines, have also seen elevated figures. At least nine Charleston County elementary schools have recorded 10 or more cases since school started.
School district offices and “other employees” have also recorded seven confirmed cases.
District leaders called two emergency meetings in the days before school started for many students Aug. 18 to consider potential mask regulations. After meeting in executive session for more than two hours Aug. 16 and initially passing a districtwide mask mandate, district officials met the next week and backtracked. In the intervening days, anti-mask parents mounted loud, angry protests in front of Charleston City Council minutes before city leaders to vote down a new citywide mask rule.
District Board of Trustees Chair Eric Mack said in a statement during an Aug. 23 board meeting that a state budget proviso that prohibits schools from implementing mask mandates also prohibits schools from enforcing them.
Not everyone in the board room was in agreement, however.
“If you’re going to mandate something and not require compliance or have any type of penalty behind it, it might as well be an option,” said board member Erica Cokley.
The State Supreme Court will hear arguments over the budget proviso barring local school mask mandates next week, when state Attorney General Alan Wilson takes City of Columbia attorneys to the state’s high court over a mandate the city passed earlier this month.
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