After nixing McMaster order, education chief lifts school mask mandates
(The Center Square) – The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) rescinded Gov. Henry McMaster’s executive order allowing parents to decide whether their children should wear face masks in public schools.
SCDE Superintendent Molly Spearman said Wednesday during a media call that McMaster has “no legal grounds” to issue the order because under state law, the governor cannot undo a policy instituted by another constitutional officer except under an emergency declaration.
“This power is reserved solely for the South Carolina General Assembly,” read a SCDE guidance letter sent Wednesday to public school superintends explaining its dismissal of McMaster’s order.
“The governor thoroughly understands the rule of law and surely recognizes this,” the guidance letter read, “but (he) has been successful in his mission of circumventing public health guidance by inciting hysteria and sowing division in the waning days of the school year.”
Wednesday’s SCDE guidance instead rescinded the state’s face mask policies effective immediately with students required to have faces covered only while on school buses, which is a federal requirement.
“Rather than wage a debate over constitutionality that would pit elected officials, students, and families against one another, Superintendent Spearman has, effective immediately, rescinded the state face covering policy with the exception of the school bus requirement that is now required by the federal government,” the letter read.
McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes told reporters the governor appreciated “the cooperation and willingness to follow the law” without entangling the state in litigation.
Before this week, students, teachers and staff were required to wear face coverings while entering school buildings, in hallways and in other “instances where social distancing is not possible or optimal.”
Spearman said Wednesday she “did not speak with the governor” before he issued the order and had told his staff not to issue it.
McMaster ordered the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) on Tuesday to produce a waiver form for parents to sign to opt their children out of wearing face masks at school.
“It is ridiculous for school districts to tell parents whether or not their child should wear a mask in the classroom, that is up to the parent,” McMaster said on Twitter.
In Wednesday’s guidance, the SCDE “recommends school boards and administrators confer with their legal counsel as to what liability protections, if any, are provided by DHEC’s opt-out form. Superintendent Spearman and the SCDE continue to urge schools and districts to follow DHEC’s public health guidance as they have throughout the pandemic.”
The DHEC has created the opt-out form McMaster requested, but it comes with a statement that also questions the order: “All students, staff and others in schools should continue to wear masks through the end of the current school year.”
Lexington-Richland 5 was the only South Carolina public school district to lift its mask mandate in response to McMaster’s order, despite a threat from teachers and staff that they would sue.
McMaster’s order also bans state and local government agencies from requiring proof of vaccination – vaccine passports – to receive services or access buildings, and restricts local governments from issuing mask ordinances based on COVID-19 pandemic emergency declarations.
“Everybody knows what we need to do to stay safe – including wearing a mask if you’re at risk of exposing others – but we must move past the time of governments dictating when and where South Carolinians are required to wear a mask,” McMaster said Tuesday. “Maintaining the status quo ignores all of the great progress we’ve made.”
Disclaimer: This content is distributed by The Center Square
