Columbia's mayor ponders school mask mandate

COLUMBIA - The mayor of South Carolina's capital city is considering issuing a school mask mandate, a move he says would protect vaccine-ineligible children amid the coronavirus' resurgence.

The effort would put Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, a Democrat, at odds with Republican Gov. Henry McMaster as well as the GOP-controlled Legislature, which recently barred such policies for all public schools.

Benjamin, who has previously declared a state of emergency during the pandemic, said during a City Council meeting Tuesday that he was considering issuing a new one, which he said would allow him to impose mask requirements in schools within the city's limits.

Because adults, as well as children age 12 and older, are eligible to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, Benjamin said he was not considering a universal mask mandate, only one intended to protect age-ineligible kids.

"The challenge is that our babies are unvaccinated," said Benjamin, currently in his third and final term as Columbia mayor and among South Carolina's most notable Democrats.

"If we as a community are not willing to do what is necessary to keep them safe and keep them alive, then that is indeed a statement on who we are as a people," he added.

Disagreements about the school masking issue have been percolating as districts and colleges plan to head back to classes this fall.

On July 1, a budget proviso took effect explicitly prohibiting educational institutions from using public funds to enact their own mask mandates. Tuesday, the University of South Carolina reversed its requirement that students and staff be masked indoors on campus after Attorney General Alan Wilson weighed in on that proposal, saying that the proviso - while "inartfully worded" - made the mandate illegal.

Noting that the proviso forbids a school mask mandate, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control said last month that it "strongly recommends mask use for all people when indoors in school settings, especially when physical distancing is not possible." State Education Department officials have noted publicly that they couldn't follow updated federal guidance recommending masks in schools.

McMaster - who, earlier this year, called it "the height of ridiculosity" for a school district to require a mask over any parent's wishes that their child go without one - has applauded that measure, acknowledging the dangers posed by the delta variant but saying "shutting our state down, closing schools and mandating masks is not the answer. Personal responsibility is."

Vaccination rates in South Carolina have been among the lowest in the country, with just under 45% of eligible residents fully dosed, according to data updated Saturday by state health officials.

New COVID-19 cases have been on the rise in South Carolina, with the average number doubling in the past two weeks to more than 400 cases a day amid no signs of slowing down, according to state health officials.

During an event Monday promoting vaccination, Dr. Anna-Kathryn Rye Burch, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, said Prisma Health Children's Hospital in Columbia is "at capacity almost every day" as the pandemic resurges.

"Our ICU is full of children with respiratory viruses, and some of those are COVID," she said.

Benjamin, who is also an attorney, said Tuesday that he felt he had the legal authority to implement the policy.

"It would be immoral for us not to act unless we see a significant change in the trend of these numbers," Benjamin said. "We're going in the wrong direction, and we need to decide as a community if we want to go in the right direction."