Parents, education officials and community activists in Georgetown County are pressing the state for a new school boat for Sandy Island schoolchildren.

Activists say the boat currently in use, which was bought in 1965, endangers children because of its age and production of diesel fumes. Parents have complained to Morris Johnson, president of the Georgetown County NAACP, that their children smell of diesel every day after riding the boat.

Johnson said he plans to take the Sandy Island school children’s case to County Council and the Georgetown Board of Education at its next meetings.

S.C. Department of education officials say they are in process of getting a new boat, but did not specify how long that might take.