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Children s Knitting Class
10 -11 a.m., Sat., Feb. 2nd
SB Adult Knitting Classes,
5 &
Crafty Mama’s,
downtown Roberta
SsSssSS' 1 '"jL >
66 Recreation Baseball/
■ Softball Reg istration
Saturday, February 2 at
recreation fields,
10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
7ks Uoice, of Ctcuufo&sL County tines, 7927 ffflbo 6ste/mg t/Tyto/i & ^Pexzciv Co. J
Thursday, January 31,2013
2 Sections, 14 Pages
Miscommunication?
Parents, Children Summoned To Juvenile Court
By Abigail Adams
The Georgia Post
Fifty angry parents had to appear
in court with their child concerning
absences from school recently.
On Thursday, January 24th the Ju
venile Court in Peach County saw
about 50 angry parents from Craw
ford County in their courtroom. The
parents had been summoned to court
along with their children to an infor
mal hearing for being absent from
school for more than eight days and,
as one parent said, “were treated as
though they were bad students.”
About 25 to 30 students from
Crawford County Middle School re
ceived summons to a hearing held at
the Juvenile Court in Peach County
over their Christmas break. One
student was on vacation at the time
and as his mother, Tammy McCarty,
stated, “he could not enjoy the rest
of his trip,” because he was too wor
ried about the reason for the sub
poena which she said the Sheriff’s
department refused to tell them.
The situation became worse as
about 50 very upset parents filled
the Juvenile courtroom on the date
of the hearing to find out why their
children were being summoned to
court. The confusion increased as
they were told that they had been
summoned for unexcused absences.
McCarty felt the children, who she
said were good students, were being
labeled as bad children as the court
offered them counseling for their
absences.
“I felt like we (the parents) as well
as our children were being pun
ished,” McCarty stated. “When they
asked me why I felt we were being
punished I told them, we have all
missed a day of work and the chil
dren have all missed a day of school
and that was apparently the reason
we were there in the first place.”
McCarty was also upset that she
saw no representation from the
school system in the hearing and felt
there should have been. She brought
her own son’s report card to the hear
ing to show that his grades were not
suffering from missing the days at
school and stated in the hearing she
didn’t know why she had not been
informed before the summons were
presented to her family.
As the hearing went on the per
son in charge, Mrs. Lynn Kennedy
was stunned to find out that none
of the parents had been informed
through the proper process that was
required of the school before reach
ing the step of being summoned to
court. According to school superin
tendent, John Douglas and middle
school principal Dr. Anthony Eng
lish, due to the loss of their full
time attendance clerk, excuses for
absences had not been put into the
system when the Juvenile Court had
requested the records and notifica
tions to parents had not been sent.
As stated in the handbook the pol
icy on absences is as follows:
Phase 1- The principal or his des
ignee is to begin a file on the student
when he/she has three unexcused
absences. The principal (designee)
will make contact with the parents.
The school will retain a copy of all
correspondence in the student’s file.
After the fifth day of unexcused ab
sences, according to Georgia law, a
student is considered Truant and a
letter will be mailed to the parents.
Phase 2- On the sixth day of un
excused absence, the principal (des
ignee) will notify parent of further
actions to be taken. This notifica
tion will explain the parent is in
violation of Georgia’s Compulsory
School Attendance Law. The parent
is requested to make contact with
the attendance clerk immediately
regarding the absences. Failure to
make contact results in the principal
(designee) beginning proceedings
to have the parents or guardians is
sued a citation to appear in court. If
this happens, one could be subject
to a fine of up to $100 per day for
each day the child is not in school
or imprisonment, not exceeding 30
days, or both, at the discretion of the
court having jurisdiction.
Phase 3- The principal (designee)
will continue to track unexcused
absences. Appropriate notification
will be made at the following inter
vals: 10,15,20, and 21 days. Letters
are to be mailed to the parent at each
interval.
The handbook also states that be
ing absence more than ten days can
prevent a student, 14 years or older,
from getting their driver’s license or
have their license suspended. After
every attempt to resolve attendance
issues within the school have been
made then the school will send at
tendance records to Juvenile Court
to schedule an Informal Adjustment
Hearing.
As was stated by Douglas, Eng
lish and Mrs. Latonya Ages, the rep
resentative of the Juvenile Court in
charge of this matter, the issue was
the product of a miscommunication.
Due to the lack of an attendance
clerk at the middle school, the at
tendance records sent to the court
were not correct and both Douglas
and English were unaware of the
fact that the records were going to
be used to issue summons.
Ages stated that the court was
unaware that the school had not fol
lowed procedure before sending the
records and that most of the students
on the list should not have been sum
moned to a hearing at all. She stated
that no prosecutions were made in
the informal hearing and that the
parents present were educated on
what could happen if their child did
have more than the allowed unex
cused absences (5 days).
An excused absence is defined in
the handbook as an absence that a
parent has provided written docu
mentation as to why the child was
absent. The excuse must have; the
date of the absence, the student’s
name, the reason for the absence,
and the parent or guardian’s signa
ture. Accepted reasons for absence
are; personal illness, death of a
member of the family, a court or
der or an order by a governmental
agency, celebration of state recog
nized religious holidays, conditions
rendering attendance impossible or
hazardous to student health or safe
ty, one day to register to vote, or at
tendance at a school sanctioned or
parental sanctioned event.
To be sure that no other incident
like this happens again Ages plans
to meet with Douglas this week to
discuss and be sure that policy and
procedure are followed in the fu
ture. McCarty stated that from now
on she will be hand delivering all
her son’s absence excuses. She also
stated that she feels the school owes
the parents of the students who were
summoned an apology for the time
lost from work and from school due
to the misunderstanding.
Officer Wes Griffis
Brings DARE Here
By Abigail Adams
The Georgia Post
Roberta City Police Officer
Wes Griffis is no stranger to
the DARE program. Grow
ing up his closest mentor
throughout his junior high
and high school days was his
football coach, school
resource officer, and
DARE instructor
Deputy Carl Tip-
ton, of the Seminole
County Sheriff’s Of
fice. When RPD Chief
Benny Thomas asked
Griffis if he would be
interested in teaching
DARE to Crawford
County students he
jumped at the chance.
“The training was two
weeks of the most mentally
and even physically exhaust
ing training I have ever at
tended,” Griffis said. “When
offered to teach DARE, it was
a no brainer. I am very glad
that I was trained as a DARE
instructor. I feel that it made
me a better person at work
and in my home life.”
The DARE program helps
to teach students in all three
schools (elementary, middle
and high) about the impor
tance of saying no to drugs,
but it also provides other life
lessons to children, such as
being a good citizen and mak
ing wise life choices.
To Griffis, his role in shap
ing the future through teach
ing children in the DARE
program, is a very important
one and one he plans to take
very seriously.
Though dona
tions from the
community paid
for Griffis’s
training and for
some supplies
to begin the
program, it will
still need further
funding to con
tinue as planned.
“DARE has been received
by the community with open
arms. We greatly appreciate
all the contributions that have
been made by our local busi
ness owners and citizens to
support the effort. In the fu
ture we are looking forward
to holding fundraisers such as
book fairs at the schools, car
washes, barbeques, and more.
We also hope to partner with
the Crawford County Board
of Education to implement a
full-time school resource of
ficer to work throughout the
three schools, who can devote
Griffis in the classroom at
his or her time to the safety
and well-being of the students
as well as teaching the DARE
program year round,” Griffis
stated.
Griffis feels that the pro
gram is going very well so far,
even in its early stages. He
currently teaches fifth grade
students at the elementary
school two days out of the
week and is planning to start
teaching at the middle and
high schools later on in the
school year. The program is
ten weeks long with a “gradu
ation” at the completion of the
program where Griffis will
hand out certificates to those
who completed the course.
“We were given a quote in
DARE officer training that I
keep on the dash of my patrol
CCES.
car that reads, ‘One hundred
years from now it won’t mat
ter what kind of car I drove,
what kind of house I lived in,
how much money I had in the
bank, nor what my clothes
looked like, but the world
may be a little better because
I was important in the life of
a child.’ I hold this very near
and dear to me and I am hon
ored and privileged to have
the opportunity to make a
difference in the life of these
children who are the future of
our society.”
To find out how you can
help the DARE program and
Griffis continue to make a dif
ference in the lives of Craw
ford County students by mak
ing a donation call the Roberta
City Hall at 478-836-3119.
Get Nominations, Reservations
In For Chamber s Annual Dinner
By Victoria Simmons
The Georgia Post
January ends today and
that means the Roberta-
Crawford County Chamber
of Commerce Annual Meet
ing is just around the comer.
Held in February each year,
it has been scheduled for
Monday the 18th, 7 p.m.
and will be held at Camp
Grace which has plenty of
leg room.
Tickets are just $30 or you
can reserve a table of eight
for $200. No tickets will be
issued. You must make res
ervations by February 10th,
with payment through the
RCCCOC. No tickets will be
available for purchase at the
door on the evening of the
event. The speaker will be
Dr. Billy Browning.
The Business Expo is
from 6-7 p.m. so if you
want to highlight your busi
ness please contact David
McLeighton 478-957-7399
or Patti at the Chamber,
478-836-3825. There will
be plenty of room to display
and highlight your company.
As always the Chamber
will recognize some of our
citizen’s contribution to the
community. Nominations
for Individual of the Year,
Group of the Year and Youth
of the Year and a new cat
egory Unsung Hero, are now
being solicited. Group of
the Year is no longer limited
to youth groups. Unsung
Hero will not be considered
on a yearly basis. This is to
honor a group/individual
that serves the community
on a daily or routine basis
without recognition of who
assists the community or
an individual in an extraor
dinary way. Nomination
forms can be found on the
chamber website www.
robertacrafordchamber.
org under “News/Awards”,
or may be obtained at the
chamber office. Nominations
should be returned no later
than February 8, 2013. For
more information call the
Chamber or meail rcccoc@
pstel.net.
Correction
The annual Peaches to
Beaches will be held
March 8 & 9th. We re
ceived conflicting news
releases and went with
the wrong dates last
week. We apologize for
any inconvenience this
may have caused. Also
the number to call is
478-836-3825 to dis
cuss this event.
