A memo from Education Superintendent Molly Spearman said districts now have “discretionary authority to require masks.”
South Carolina schools can enact mask mandates and seek the advice of lawyers on accommodations for medically vulnerable students, the state education chief said Wednesday. The decision from a federal judge favors the parents of disabled students, who argued in a lawsuit that banning masks was discriminatory because they didn’t feel safe sending their students to school in a pandemic without the protection of masks. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and Attorney General Alan Wilson vowed to appeal, and a lawmaker who introduced the ban threatened to withhold funding from districts that require masks. A memo from Education Superintendent Molly Spearman said districts now have “discretionary authority to require masks.” “In its order, the Court used strong language to share grave concerns about barriers to meaningful access to in-person education, programs, services, and activities for students with disabilities,” Spearman wrote. For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below: The Republican superintendent has been asking the Republican governor and Republican-dominated General Assembly to allow districts to pass mask rules if they wish. Doctors, teachers, school administrators and the state Health Department also have urged McMaster and Republican lawmakers to change their stance that parents should individually determine whether their children wear masks in school.
