Spearman breaks with McMaster, urges district decisions on masks

“Our schools are starting, our educators are worried, and we have parents who are very, very concerned, as I am.“

South Carolina Secretary of Education Molly Spearman broke with the governor and state legislators at a press conference in Columbia Tuesday morning, saying the issue of mask mandates in schools is best left up to school districts, not state politicians.

Spearman gathered with doctors and state public health officials to urge parents to send students to school this week with masks, regardless of whether local rules required them.

“We have two ways to make that happen: Either the legislature comes back in — and I have asked them to do that continually — or this ends up in courts, and the courts resolve it,” Spearman said during the press conference. “I disagree with the governor on this. We have got to have a solution to this. Our schools are starting, our educators are worried, and we have parents who are very, very concerned, as I am.”

Spearman pointed to the state’s proviso prohibiting mask mandates in schools, highlighting the measure’s lack of consequences for schools that defy it.

“Although I am a state constitutional officer and I took an oath to uphold the law … There is no penalty written specifically on this proviso about mask-wearing.”

However, other measures limiting school safety measures do include penalties, including the threat of funding revocation for schools whose virtual student population exceeds 5% of the school’s total student population. Spearman said current proposals for virtual learning do not run afoul of that rule.

A series of pediatricians and other medical professionals also in attendance shared experiences with the delta variant in hospitals and describing what schools risk if they open without mask mandates. Nine school districts have already opened for two weeks, and amid soaring infection rates amid students, one 16-year-old student has died due to COVID-19 complications, they said.

“The fact that the delta variant is more transmissible does not mean that it’s defeated by the masks, it means it’s spreading rapidly from person to person because the recommended standards and prevention measures have been relaxed,” state epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell said during the conference.

Bell explained it is not too lane to crack back down on health and safety measures. “Specific studies have been done that demonstrate that when we follow these basic principles, yes, we can have in-person school safely,” she said.