CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) — Former Charleston County Sheriff Kristin Graziano said the deaths of 2-year-old Emory and 15-month-old Harlow Deacon could have been avoided.

“These children were failed, in my professional opinion, were failed completely, utterly and repeatedly by the very system entrusted with their protection,” Graziano said.

Graziano said at the very least there should have been a safety plan in place.

She said a safety plan allows the investigator or DSS to go by the house and do regular checkups. She said it allows them to offer services to the mother or the parent of the children.

“A safety plan starts that action in a court of law,” Graziano said.

31-year-old Justine May is accused of starving the girls to death at their Pinewood Drive home. Days before, their father, Zach Deacon, was arrested after making multiple calls urging law enforcement to check on his girls.

“If I was a parent wanting to see my children and reached out to a system to help. He became a victim of the system himself,” Graziano said. “Victimized again by losing his children.”

Graziano also took issue with an exchange from a 911 call in which a deputy responding to dispatch said they were no longer doing welfare checks at that address.

Sheriff Carl Ritchie issued a statement backing that deputy, saying that he was following established policies and procedures.

Graziano said that is not right.

“When you get a call to a residence about the safety of infant children. Every red flag went up,” Graziano said. “Every single time and it just escalated. This is not a sudden, unpredictable fail; this is a slow-motion catastrophe. When the warning lights flashed red at every turn, the safety net dissolved.”

CHARLESTON — The S.C. Department of Transportation terminated its contract with a traffic control company after its failure to remove cones and other infrastructure blocking two lanes on Interstate 26 caused significant gridlock Sept. 29.

The left two eastbound lanes between Interstate 526 and Dorchester Road were closed as DOT crews conducted routine maintenance. The equipment used for the lane closures, including high-visibility traffic cones, wasn’t removed until 7:45 a.m., over three hours after maintenance was complete, causing major traffic for commuters.

In a letter to the Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester County legislative delegations, Justin Powell, DOT’s secretary of transportation, outlined what happened to cause the traffic backup and the actions DOT took.

“I want to be absolutely clear that what occurred is unacceptable,” Powell wrote in the letter.

He did not identify the contractor in the letter.

DOT maintenance crews were doing routine patching on a bridge deck around mile marker 213 overnight on Sept. 28 into the morning of Sept. 29. The operation required lane closures to protect the crews while working in a high-speed area, Powell wrote.

He added that because maintenance operations like this are disruptive to traffic, they’re done overnight whenever possible.

DOT engaged a traffic control contractor to establish the work zone and set up the lane closures. The maintenance crews completed the work and reached out to the contractor numerous times to remove the lane closure apparatus around 4 a.m., Powell wrote.

The contractor didn’t respond until roughly 7 a.m., he wrote.

With the lane closure equipment still in place, drivers heading to Charleston found themselves stuck in traffic for nearly three hours. At 7 a.m. on Sept. 29, the estimated commute from Summerville to downtown Charleston was 170 minutes, according to previous Post and Courier reporting.

In addition to terminating the contract with the traffic control group for “failure to perform,” Powell wrote that DOT took “appropriate corrective action” with its staff who failed to properly address or escalate the issue when the contractor didn’t respond.

DOT has implemented new procedures so lane closure equipment can be removed immediately after a project is completed.

Given all the money on the line, it seems like a no-brainer that South Carolina should have one rule for who qualifies as an in-state student at its colleges or universities.

There's an apparent lack of consistency in the status quo, and it might never have come to light if it weren't for a family who recently moved from Texas to Charleston.

As Jessica Holdman reports in the S.C. Daily Gazette, determining who qualifies as a South Carolinian can be tricky since our state is growing so quickly, and for some families, the distinction is of major importance because students from outside the state can pay three times or more than in-state students pay to attend the same college.

While state law defines who qualifies for in-state tuition, each college has some — we now think too much — discretion on whether a particular student meets those qualifications. To qualify, parents must show they have a South Carolina driver's license, must pay S.C. income taxes and must register their vehicle and have their primary residence here.

Carl Salvato of Charleston said he met all of those criteria a year ago. Clemson University, where his son was enrolled as a sophomore, agreed. The College of Charleston, where his daughter was enrolled, did not, apparently because Mr. Salvato still owned a home in the San Antonio area. That pushed his tuition bill from $12,500 to $40,000.

We agree with state Rep. Nathan Ballentine, who told Ms. Holdman: "If two schools are looking at the same law and coming to different conclusions on essentially the same situation, that’s something we need to take a look at. ... Families shouldn’t feel like the answer changes depending on which public college their child chooses."

The problem appears partly wrapped up in the rules for establishing whether the S.C. home is the family’s main home, or legal residence. If it is, the tax rate to significantly less than that for rental and vacation homes.

It also is complicated in Mr. Salvato's case because he didn’t think to change the tax status on his Texas property before selling it, and he never sought to have the his Charleston condo declared his legal residence. He co-owns that home with his partner, who still considers Texas home and has a main house there.

Frankly, it's not clear to us whether the College of Charleston or Clemson was correct in its interpretation, and that's not the main point here. Consistency, or the lack thereof, is.

It shouldn't be a heavy lift for the Legislature to clear up the rule and, in fact, remove this discretion from state universities and colleges, which are state agencies, not separate governments led by elected officials. As good a job as these schools do, they shouldn't have the discretion to look at the same set of facts involving state law and come to different conclusions on what it says.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this editor incorrectly referred to the "legal residence" tax classification as homestead exemption; the latter is available only to homeowners aged 65 and older.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston District, and the city of Charleston are partnering together to identify ways to reduce tidal and inland flood risk and make the area more resilient.

“We’re not looking at short-term fixes that will help for five years. We’re looking for fixes that will help for, you know, decades and decades to come,” Chrissa Waite, project manager with the Charleston District of the Army Corps of Engineers, said.

The city says flood risk continues to increase as extreme weather events become more frequent.

“The reality is, you know, we’re seeing more and more of these extreme weather events, be it hurricanes or our higher king tides. You know, 75% of our king tides have occurred over the past decade,” Kaylan Koszela, director of resilience at the city of Charleston, said.

For residents, the impact of flooding is already part of everyday life.

“Flooding on our streets. When we have a hard rain and the ditches overflow when we have the hard rain,” Marsha Higgins, resident of the Maryville and Ashleyville Neighborhood Association, said.

The study is looking at both inland and tidal flooding. Project leaders are now sharing potential fixes with the community.

“Elevating roadways in certain areas. It might include increasing the size of culverts to move water out of neighborhoods when we have extreme rainfall. It might include putting in tidal gates at certain areas to prevent those king tides from getting into neighborhoods. So those are the types of things we’re considering right now,” Waite said.

While flood mitigation is the top priority, this partnership is helping take these ideas to the next level.

“Maybe how could we imagine Savannah Highway to help, you know, use it as a type of barrier from our increasing sea level polarize, but also improve, you know, we could widen it while we’re doing that too, right? Like how can we improve traffic while we’re also looking at how we could improve flooding and similar with some of our green spaces. How can we conserve some green spaces or re-enhance our marsh areas that can also provide this public benefit, public amenity, but also help us with our flooding challenges,” Koszela said.

These ideas could also help relieve other issues Charleston residents face.

“The worst issue we got right now is the traffic. That’s the flood on the highway,” John Carr, vice president of the Neighborhood Association at Maryville and Ashleyville, said.

Prioritizing marshes and wetlands, which can absorb floodwater and help reduce erosion, is an important aspect of the study too.

Residents say plans for the peninsula, West Ashley and James Island need to account for how people travel across the region, and how flooding affects them wherever they live.

“Many of us go to these medical facilities for our health care. I was down there last week when the streets were flooded. You know, my neighbor was with me, and so we had a hard time kind of maneuvering things. So that affects us, and that affects our quality of life,” Higgins said.

The team hopes to have a draft plan to share with the public by spring 2027.

Final plans for West Ashley and the peninsula are expected by summer 2028 and James Island by summer 2029.

The Army Corps and the city are hosting another meeting Oct. 8 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on James Island at the Baxter-Patrick James Island Library.

To learn more, click here.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) — One of Charleston’s most recognizable landmarks is celebrating a major milestone while working to preserve its history for generations to come.

St. Michael’s Church is marking its 275th anniversary this year. Located at the corner of Meeting and Broad streets, St. Michael’s is the oldest church building on the Charleston peninsula and has been part of the city’s spiritual, civic and architectural history for nearly three centuries.

Church leaders say the anniversary is an opportunity to reflect on the generations of people who have worshiped there while also preparing the historic parish for its future.

“I think about all of the men and women who have been married here, who have been baptized here, who came to faith here over nearly three centuries,” said the Rev. Al Zadig Jr., rector of St. Michael’s Church. “We’re just one more chapter in a long line of faithful men, women and children.”

As part of the anniversary, the church is working to preserve its historical archives by converting records into digital files. Those archives include sermons and records from church leadership.

St. Michael’s has also created a digital history app that allows visitors to learn more about the church, its stories and historic items found throughout the building.

The church is also looking toward the future through its $10 million “Light to the Nations” capital campaign. Zadig said the church has met that goal through donations from its parishioners and is now opening the effort to others in the Charleston community.

The money will help renovate the historic campus, support a diocesan camp and help ensure the church’s long-term financial stability.

For longtime member Heidi Ravenel, preserving St. Michael’s means ensuring future generations can experience the same church her family has called home.

Ravenel and her husband have been members for 30 years, while her husband’s family has attended for generations. Now, some of their grandchildren have been baptized there.

“We feel very strongly that we want to keep the church alive and bring the next generation — the generation after that — so they can benefit from it just as much as we all have,” Ravenel said.

Helen Hill, president and CEO of Explore Charleston, said the church has also become part of the fabric of the city.

“We are so fortunate to have this crown jewel at the Four Corners of Law,” Hill said. “Everyone who walks down these streets sees this amazing building. But more importantly, they also hear those magical bells.”

The anniversary celebration will continue later this year. On Dec. 6, the church plans to dedicate a new plaque honoring five St. Michael’s parishioners who signed America’s founding documents.