FLORENCE, SC (WMBF) – The South Carolina Department of Public Safety is mourning the loss of one of its own after a state transport officer died on Wednesday.

SCDPS said 43-year-old South Carolina State Transport Police Officer Mark Reynolds experienced a medical emergency during a training exercise earlier in the day.

Reynolds is a Florence native and was an officer who covered Florence, Williamsburg, and Georgetown counties in Region 5. Prior to joining the force in 2022, he served as a firefighter for more than a decade and a transport truck driver before that.

“The death of Officer First Class Reynolds is a profound loss, not only for the State Transport Police, but the entire Department of Public Safety,” SCDPS Director Robert G. Woods, IV said. “We are all hugging our families a little closer tonight and praying for Mark’s wife, children, friends, and loved ones who are left reeling from this sudden loss.”

Reynolds is being remembered as a dependable and respected man by his fellow officers.

“Today is a very sad day for the State Transport Police. For anyone who knew Mark personally, he was well-liked, respected and extremely dependable,” STP Colonel Dwayne Wilson said. “He was committed to his job and lived a life of service to the state, through his years as a firefighter and most recently as one of our officers. He will be greatly missed.”

Information about a memorial service for Reynolds will be released by SCDPS when details become available.

Stay with WMBF News for updates.

Copyright 2024 WMBF. All rights reserved.

The Kentucky Wildcats opened up the 2024 season with a dominating win over the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, but it certainly wasn’t in typical fashion.

The Cats’ first game of the regular season was set to start at 7:55 p.m. on Saturday night, but after scattered storms throughout the day, lightning delayed the start until 10:05 p.m.

Despite an uneven start, Kentucky got into a rhythm in the second quarter and carried that over into the second half, but once again, the game was delayed due to lightning just before midnight. Ultimately, the two teams decided to call it quits with 10 minutes remaining in the third quarter and Kentucky holding a 31-0 lead over USM.

The shutout was only the second in Stoops’ 12 seasons in Lexington—the other coming by the same score (31-0) against Youngstown State in 2022. It was the first shutout in a season opener for Kentucky since 2009 and the first in a home opener since 1993.

Kentucky’s upcoming opponent, the South Carolina Gamecocks, didn’t perform quite as well in Week 1. The Gamecocks narrowly defeated the Old Dominion Monarchs in Columbia by a score of 23-19. 14 of those 23 points came from touchdowns scored after the Monarchs turned the ball over twice inside their own five-yard line. It was an ugly game for Shane Beamer’s squad, who now has much more to prove in Week 2.

Regardless of the Week 1 outcomes, Stoops is certain to have his team ready to play in Week 2. After beating South Carolina seven times in an eight-year span covering 2014-2021, Stoops’ Kentucky teams have lost two in a row since Beamer took over in Columbia in 2022. The 2022 game was without star quarterback Will Levis, who was injured, but last year’s loss was a tough pill to swallow for the Big Blue Nation.

The Cats have won five of their last seven SEC openers, including three in a row. They’ve opened up as early 10-point favorites via DraftKings, so the expectation is surely a win in this one. However, Stoops will need to prove he can take Beamer down in order to secure this crucial, must-win game.

Can the Cats regain their edge over Beamer’s Gamecocks?

Let us know in the poll below and in the comments section!

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – Classrooms will soon be cellphone-free zones for public school students across South Carolina.

On Tuesday, the State Board of Education approved a model policy to ban cell phones for students in South Carolina public schools.

Now districts will have to decide whether they will implement the state’s policy or put their own stricter measures in place.

“We’ve left a lot of flexibility to you as local districts about how you’re actually going to implement this during the day because we know that all schools are different, all districts are different,” State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver told reporters following the board’s meeting Tuesday afternoon in West Columbia.

Banning cell phones in South Carolina schools has strong support at the highest levels of leadership in Columbia.

The General Assembly enacted a temporary law in the current state budget that orders all districts to enact a policy to do this or put their state funding at risk if they fail to comply.

Gov. Henry McMaster urged the State Board to approve its model policy Tuesday, writing in a letter to board members, “Our responsibility is to create an environment where teachers can teach, and students learn.”

“We know that these digital distractions and devices are creating mental health challenges, they are distracting students from learning, and they are really making it much harder for our teachers to do what they’re there to do, which is teach,” Weaver said.

The model policy the State Board approved Tuesday was crafted by the South Carolina Department of Education.

It prohibits students from accessing devices, including cellphones, smart watches, tablets, and gaming devices, during the school day, unless the district superintendent approves their use.

Exceptions would be allowed for students with IEPs and medical plans if the device is needed for medical or educational purposes, as well as for students who serve as volunteer firefighters or in other emergency organizations, with permission from their district superintendent.

Students would have to keep their phones and other devices in their lockers, backpacks, or wherever the district decides they should be kept, and they would be able to outright prohibit students from bringing them on campus at all.

Districts would still have some discretion over whether this applies to time spent on school buses, field trips, and athletic events, as well as what consequences students face for violations.

“Removing the child from class is going to be way down the road. The idea is to have kids in class and paying attention,” State Board member Christian Hanley Jr. said during Tuesday’s meeting.

At a meeting last month, during which the State Board postponed its final vote on the model policy to give it more consideration, members heard concerns from the public about districts imposing severe penalties, like suspensions, that would go against the intent of the cellphone ban.

The policy eventually earned the support of all but one State Board member, Beverly Frierson, though others expressed some hesitations about it.

“There is the law of unintended consequences, and it frightens me, and it is not even Halloween,” State Board Chair David O’Shields, who also serves as the superintendent in Laurens County School District 56, said during Tuesday’s meeting.

If they have not already, districts must adopt a local policy sometime this fall, with full statewide implementation starting in January.

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