COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) says it will once again require all public schools to enforce the use of face masks on school buses starting August 30.
The enforcement is a change from the department's position announced in early July that it would no longer require face coverings on public school buses. The department says the change comes as most districts are already requiring face masks on buses anyway. Those that don't, will have to soon.
There are exceptions, though. Those who cannot take a mask off on their own if they experience breathing problems, like students with a physical or mental disability, would not be required to wear one. Those who use an assistive device to move or communicate would also not have to wear one if it were to interfere with the device.
Soon after the announcement was made, News19 learned that an upstate attorney had filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Education last week. The lawsuit, backed by a group of Greenville families, said that not requiring masks on school buses is a violation of federal law.
According to an attorney for the families, the lawsuit was filed just six days before the SCDE changed its stance regarding masks on school buses.
We reached out to the SCDE to ask whether the reversal of its policy had anything to do with the lawsuit. A spokesperson tells us this requirement change was in motion prior to the lawsuit being filed against them.
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Parents, concerned about students sitting in close proximity on school buses without masks are weighing in on the changes announced by the SCDE.
LaTeaka Miller has four kids in the Sumter School District. She says, "It does make me feel better because it's just sad right now -- the hospitals are over capacitated with the number of COVID patients, and some of the children are not age-appropriate yet for the vaccine … so it makes a big difference."
Miller says that this is a good step but she wishes more would be done, "I wish they would make the masks mandatory in the school because like I said, the virus is steady spreading."
"This isn't my expertise area but I am a parent," says Heather Harris-Bergevin, who has a 7th grader in public school. "He's got sensory processing issues, and I thought wearing a mask would be really hard for him, and this year when it was no longer mandated, I was like 'look, I know I can't make you wear it all day at school but I'd really like you to wear it all day at school,' and he just reached for a mask and was like 'oh yeah, no question I'm totally going to be wearing a mask.'"
Although schools can't enforce a mask mandate. due to state law, Harris-Bergevin thinks the schools are doing the best they can, "I think this is an intelligent way to at least attempt to cover the buses. It's not really as possibly effective as it wants to be because there are three kids to a bus seat and it's not something that's going to be fully covered at all times."
The state department says they will equip all state-owned school buses with an adequate supply of face coverings.