South Carolina editorial roundup: Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022

Post & Courier

Jan. 19

Parents, school boards need to help DHEC keep S.C. schools open

We know that kids need to be in the classroom: for their education, for their emotional well-being, for their physical safety and, yes, for the sake of parents who otherwise would have to stay home with them - possibly losing their jobs as a result - and businesses that would face further strains with those parents' absences.

And yet, we can't all seem to agree at the same time to do what it takes to keep them in school.

Early on, the problem was on the left, as many teachers and school boards were unwilling to acknowledge mounting evidence that we could safely bring children back into the classroom as long as they were masked and distanced. As a result, too many South Carolina school districts kept kids away from classrooms for months, in some cases close to a year, after Gov. Henry McMaster closed all our schools for what we all thought was going to be a brief interruption as COVID-19 first spread across the state.

Then the vaccines came, and teachers lined up to get vaccinated. The virus started to recede, and districts made plans to keep kids in class despite the Legislature's efforts to keep them from using one of the most effective tools - mask requirements - to limit classroom spread.

But then the delta variant, and now the omicron, sent infections and quarantines soaring ever higher and forced classrooms, schools and whole districts to retreat to online learning, if that.

As The Post and Courier's Libby Stanford reports, 32,000 S.C. students had to quarantine during the first week of this year alone after infection or exposure to the virus. And the number of teachers who were sick or had to quarantine already had forced 12 S.C. school districts to switch to temporary virtual classes by Friday, along with many more individual schools and classrooms. More districts followed this week. In schools that remained open, classrooms were combined, and some resorted to calling on cafeteria staff and custodians just to keep a warm adult body in the room. Babysitting, essentially.

Through it all, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control has worked overtime to find ways to make it safe to keep classrooms open, scouring the latest research as our understanding of the evolving virus shifted and turned.

In October, when delta brought us the first wave of quarantine-catalyzed shutdowns, the agency announced that students who were within 3 feet of an infected student for 15 minutes or longer over the course of a day didn't have to quarantine if they didn't develop symptoms - assuming they were wearing masks. The departure from CDC recommendations for quarantines of up to 14 days unless both children were masked was based on early real-world data and the hope of encouraging more children to wear masks.

In December, DHEC endorsed the test-to-stay option that allows more students and teachers to stay in the classroom after exposure to the virus as long as they don't develop symptoms, although that's been next to impossible to implement so far, as schools, like the rest of us, struggle to get their hands on enough tests to meet demand.

Then early Sunday morning, the agency followed up with new guidelines allowing more exposed teachers to remain in the classroom "when the school is in a crisis staffing condition." Now all teachers in such schools who are exposed to the virus but have no symptoms may continue working, assuming they wear a mask and have a negative test on the fifth day after exposure. Normally, those exemptions apply only to teachers who are fully vaccinated and boosted.

This change, the agency said, was designed specifically to "allow more schools to continue providing in-person education for students when they otherwise could not maintain operations due to staffing and would have to close."

Yes, we know that COVID-19 isn't deadly or even dangerous for the vast majority of kids. And we know that kids and their vulnerable parents and grandparents have the option - and, we would argue, the responsibility - to get vaccinated to protect themselves from other people's infections. But we also know that schools have no choice but to send kids home when so many teachers are sick or quarantined and so few people are willing to serve as substitutes while transmissions are so high and the workload is so intense.

It's time for parents and school officials to meet DHEC halfway. They need to make sure that as long as community spread remains at record highs, students and staff are doing the one thing we know they can do to reduce classroom spread: wear masks at school.

That shouldn't require any mandates, particularly since in many cases the parents who refuse to let their children wear masks are the very ones who have been the loudest about demanding schools remain open. But since it does, school boards need to step up and adopt those requirements. Now.

They don't have to keep them in place forever, but they do need to keep them in place as long as our COVID-19 spread is so high that it's forcing students back to virtual classes. That was a poor substitute for in-person learning even when we thought we had no choice. Now that we know better, it is absolutely unacceptable.

Times and Democrat

Jan. 19

Lifeline is important for students

Gov. Henry McMaster signed into law in 2021 the Student Identification Card Suicide Prevention Act. It requires public schools serving seventh through 12th grade and public and private institutions of higher learning to provide the phone number of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and an additional crisis resource of their choosing on school-issued student identification cards.

"This law not only provides our students with easy access to a vital resource, it will also serve as a daily reminder that they are not alone," McMaster said. "Through the work of the South Carolina Department of Mental Health and many others, South Carolina has developed statewide infrastructure to support those in need. We must continue to fight to end the stigma surrounding mental health issues and work to ensure all South Carolinians know how to reach out for help."

Passage of the legislation came amid research that shows the rate of suicide among those ages 10 to 24 increased nearly 60% between 2007 and 2018. The rise occurred in most states, with 42 experiencing significant increases, a 2020 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.

Connection with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is an important part of the legislation. Lifeline provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, seven days a week, across the United States. Lifeline is comprised of a national network of over 180 local crisis centers, combining custom local care and resources with national standards and best practices. The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.

Access to Lifeline in South Carolina was in danger until the South Carolina Department of Education partnered with Mental Health America of Greenville County.

In 2019, through a two-year capacity-building grant offered by Vibrant Emotional Health and in partnership with the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, MHAGC began serving the entire state of South Carolina with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The grant ended in September 2021, but the S.C. Department of Education has provided $250,000 in gap funding to preserve the hotline until additional funding from grants is secured in 2022.

Funding to keep Lifeline active is money well spent. Consider the numbers. As of October 2021, youth ages 7 to 19 made a total of 2,891 calls, texts and other messages to the hotline, making 2021 the year with the highest call volumes for the age group. The top two primary issues were suicide and family relationships.

S.C. Superintendent of Education is right: "Our students have and continue to face unprecedented challenges in their academic and home lives. We encourage all students who are struggling to cope with loss and adversity to reach out and seek support. This hotline provides a great service that is being utilized more than ever. This funding will ensure it remains active now and into the future, allowing students an avenue to secure the services they need to be successful in life and in school.