Dorchester County School District is asking parents to join the survey in regards to the masks in schools ahead of board meeting

Dorchester County School Districts is asking the parents of the students to take part of the survey in regards to the mask mandate in schools ahead of the board meeting.

According to them, every household is asked to submit one response no later than September 27 at noon.

Eligible for response are parents or listed guardians to the students.

The survey asks if the Board of Trustees should consider a temporary mask ordinance “in times of medium or high community spread” to maximize face-to-face learning. The other option is to leave masks optional for students and require the board to not temporarily mandate face coverings “regardless of circumstances.”

DD2 planned to vote on a mask mandate earlier this week, but deferred the vote. An email about the survey was sent to all DD2 parents. The link was sent to parents from the household listed in PowerSchool.

Masks in schools continue to be a contentious topic in South Carolina due to a budget item passed by the state legislature earlier this year blocking schools from implementing mask mandates. State leaders, including Governor Henry McMaster, have said parents should be able to choose if their child wears a mask.

Meanwhile, health experts warned the school and state officials that the virus will spread in schools without mask mandate and low vaccination rates among the group aged 12-17. Some of the school districts moved to virtual learning in order to slow the spread the virus in schools.

With the Delta wave, this has been the first time students and young people to fulfill the hospitals and end up hospitalized, something that was not the case with the previous variants of the deadly virus.

Charleston County School District began enforcing its mask mandate Wednesday. Berkeley County School District began enforcing the state Department of Education’s mask order for buses on Monday.