COLUMBIA, S.C. — The city of Columbia cannot issue a mask mandate to protect younger students from the highly contagious and potentially dangerous COVID-19 virus in the city’s public schools and day care facilities.
That was the upshot of a ruling Thursday afternoon by the South Carolina Supreme Court.
The result of the 14-page ruling was unanimous, but several justices added their own explanations of the opinion.
“In this declaratory judgment action, the Court finds the City of Columbia’s ordinances mandating face masks in public schools that serve grades K-12 are in direct conflict with Proviso 1.108 of the 2021-2022 Appropriations Act,” the state’s highest court said in a summary of its decision posted on the court’s internet site. The act referred to was passed in late June by the General Assembly, declaring that no state funds could be used to enforce mask mandates in public schools.
The Supreme Court’s decision said that the city’s enforcement provisions placed responsibility to enforce the mask mandate on school personnel, “forcing school employees to choose between violating either state or local law,” the court’s summary said.
The Supreme Court issued its ruling just two days after a lawyer for Attorney General Alan Wilson argued in the high court that the city exceeded its authority when, in early August, it issued an order saying younger students were required to wear masks in schools and day cares to protect them from the highly transmissible COVID-19 virus.
“We appreciate the Supreme Court’s quick ruling and its confirmation of our legal arguments,” Wilson said in a Thursday statement. “The court emphasized what we’ve been saying all along, that we are not arguing mask policy, we are arguing the rule of law. The court has confirmed that a city ordinance cannot conflict with state law.”
The State has reached out to Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin for reaction to the court’s decision.
At-large City Councilman Howard Duvall, the former longtime director of the state Municipal Association, said he was disappointed by the court’s ruling.
“I am sorry that the court took such a narrow view of this important issue,” Duvall said. “I think they are completely overlooking the home rule aspects of it, and the authority, both constitutional and statutory, for a municipal government to protect the health and safety of its citizens.”
Duvall said he remains hopeful the city can do something to increase mask wearing in city schools.
“I think we need to review the ruling of the Supreme Court and see if there is any space available for us to help the school districts protect the ages we were looking to protect, which is age 2 to 14,” Duvall said.
On Aug. 5, at the urging of Benjamin, the Columbia City Council approved by a 5-1 vote at an emergency ordinance requiring masks be worn at elementary and middle schools in the city limits, and at day cares that serve children between the ages of 2 and 14.
The city also released a list of 43 schools inside the city limits that fell under the new mask mandate.
In the city’s ordinance, City Council members noted the city’s children faced a “perfect storm” of threats to children's health caused by COVID-19 and that as more and more children and others were diagnosed with the highly contagious virus, capacity at the city’s major hospital complex, Prisma Health, was being strained.
On Aug. 19, Wilson filed suit with the state Supreme Court, asking it to rule on whether the city of Columbia had the authority to issue a mask mandate for students. The lawsuit referred to a proviso included in the state budget bill that the Legislature passed in late June. The proviso said state funds cannot be used in connection with mask mandates in public schools.
“Although we recognize that the city is acting out of genuine concern about the spread of the COVID-19 virus and its variants, it cannot do so contrary to the law of this state,” the suit said. “The proviso is quite clear that masks are not to be mandated by government for the schools of this state.”
In response to Wilson’s suit, Benjamin continued to say the city’s move was legal and that it has the “legal and ethical obligation to protect the health, safety and well-being” of local residents.
“Parents and teachers across our city, across Richland County, in fact across the state, have been vocal in asking us to make sure that children are safe in schools,” Benjamin said in August.
Since Wilson filed his lawsuit, the spread of COVID-19 infections in South Carolina has gotten worse. The state is now among the nation’s leaders in new weekly COVID-19 infections. South Carolina also has one of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates.
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