Yes, I know that’s one heck of a headline but I had to get it all in. Yes, the mask chaos continues in South Carolina and it has now escalated to the Civil Rights Division within the US Department of Education…apparently this might be a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The letter which is posted below states basically thatSouth Carolina shouldn’t worry 😉 …yeah, right….it’s 2021 people. We know how the feds operate. Does anyone really believe this? Check out this statement found on page 4 of the letter. “Please note that opening this directed investigation in no way implies that OCR has decided whether there has been a violation of a law OCR enforces. During the investigation, OCR is a neutral factfinder, collecting and analyzing relevant evidence from the SCDE and other sources as appropriate prior to reaching a determination in this matter.”
Lots of fun and frivolity in the Palmetto State and everyone as their brother sets their sites on the deplorables who live in this state who had the audacity to think that parents should be able to make the determination as to whether or not their children should wear masks. Oh, and if you think this is going to end with the masks, you’re crazy. Vaccines will be next year’s saga and the year after that will probably be actual parental rights in general. Just because you perhaps fathered or gave birth to your child, does in no way mean you know what’s best for them. The state will tell you what’s best for them. And if you know what’s best for you, you’ll just back away like so many do. There are small numbers of people who are pushing back. Is it enough? I don’t know.
Below is the letter sent by Suzanne B. Goldberg, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education to the Honorable Molly M. Spearman, State Superintendent of Education, South Carolina. I’m sure this will only encourage South Carolina’s Department of Education as well as SC DHEC to push like crazy to get school districts to require masks. I’m not a lawyer so I don’t know how all of this works. My guess is that the US Department of Education will soon open investigations in to many other school districts just as they are doing at the state level. More threats from an overbearing and tyrranical federal government. Is anyone surprised?
Maybe what they are trying to do is level the playing field between blue states and red states. Since it’s unfair that the red states aren’t all masked up and the blue states are, the feds have to step in to make life as miserable as possible for the red state citizens. With South Carolina stand for it? I don’t know. The state has a long and great history but in the current era, it’s run by RINOs who typically just roll over. Will the people demand their representatives fight for them? That’s still to be seen.
Oh…and Republican Governor Henry McMaster who is up for re-election in 2022, had this to say about the Judge Mary Geiger Lewis’ mask mandate ruling two days ago that caused this stir…it’s a typical weak-kneed response from McMaster…the SC Republicans caved when challenged on their abortion bill….they will likely cave on this as well. Will the parents cave?
It’s been quite a battle over masks the past several months here in South Carolina. I won’t go in to all the details but the main reason elementary and secondary school children are not masked is because there was a stipulation put in to the budget for this year that stated schools could not mandate masks.
As you could expect, they have been trying to work around it. The Department of Education has been and continues to be huge proponents of masking our children. They forced the issue with transportation requiring all students be masked. Now an Obama judge, Mary Geiger Lewis, who happens to be a Clemson grad and a Univ. of South Carolina law student, sided with the parents of immunocompromised children in a suit they brought forward with the help of the ACLU. By siding with these children, this opens the door to mask mandates being forced on several hundred thousand school children across the state. Greenville County Schools alone has more than 70,000 students. State Superintendent of Schools, Molly Spearman, is wasting no time telling schools that they MUST revise their mask policies if they had relied upon the excuse to not mask due to SC law since that law has been stuck down. They must come up with another reason why they aren’t requiring masks because they are out of line with the CDC which means they are out of line with SC DHEC and the expectations from the Department of Education….all this means is that we will likely see a lot of mask mandates in short order for our students.
I don’t have the details but I believe Attorney General Alan Wilson is challenging this ruling as might be a few of our state representatives. Here’s the memo Spearman sent to all school districts yesterday.
Meanwhile, it’s Wednesday afternoon and I fully expect we’ll have some school districts issuing mask mandates before the weekend.
Last week after President Biden issued his statement about potential mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations for employers with more than 100 employees, the South Carolina Sherriffs’ Association published a very clear statement basically saying they will not be enforcing any kind of federal government mandate when it comes to vaccines.
In South Carolina, when land is reclassified typically from agricultural land to other designations for residential and commercial development, there has been a rollback tax going back 5 years.
As ag land, the taxes are significantly lower. But if you sold your land to a developer, they would have to pay taxes going back 5 years as though that land had been fully valued lets say as commercial property. That’s a big number especially on large parcels of land. The new law, H.3596 Rollback Tax Reform, reduces the rollback tax from 5 years to 3 years effective January 1, 2021. I would indeed expect some transactions might get pushed to close after the 1st of the year.
South Carolina Association of Realtors has an excellent article discussing the impact of the rollback tax reform for 2021.
South Carolina State Parks just issued a mask mandate requiring visitors over the age of two to wear masks while visiting the parks.
According to the South Carolina State Parks Facebook Page:
“Effective immediately, visitors over the age of two years old are required to wear a mask in any state park facility staffed by employees or where the general public may congregate. This includes park offices, visitor centers, stores, nature centers, restrooms or while touring any indoor facility being considered for rent. In the event that visitors do not have a mask, they will be asked to remain outside of the facility and park employees will assist them and accommodate their needs, if possible.
Any park rental facility to include cabins, campsites, picnic shelters, group facilities, etc, are considered as having restricted use and will be the responsibility of the party renting that facility. It is recommended that they follow all CDC and SCDHEC guidelines regarding social distancing and mask wearing, but park staff will not be responsible for reinforcing those guidelines.
We thank you for your cooperation and understanding as we work to stop the spread and protect our visitors and employees.”