About The champion newspaper. (Decatur, GA) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2019)
EDUCATION THE CHAMPION, THURSDAY, MARCH 7 - 13, 2019 • Page 10 A'""!* W / McNair High School students shipped 101 bags of shoes to Guatemala Feb. 25. Photo provided by Maronda Hastie. Students ship shoes to Guatemala Students load bags of shoes into a truck to ship to Guatemala Feb. 25. Photo by Taylor Robins. BY TAYLOR ROBINS taylor@dekalbchamp.com After a two-month long shoe drive, McNair High School’s travel club sent 101 bags of shoes to Guatemala Feb. 25. “That was a lot of shoes to pack up,” said Thomas Rivers III, McNair High School senior. In partnership with The Funds20rgs Group, the travel club sent 2,525 pairs of shoes to Guatemala. The shoe drive will also benefit other countries such as Haiti. The Feb. 25 sendoff was the first shipment. Students continued to collect shoes from donors throughout the first week of March and expect to send a second shipment. “It feels very awesome,” Rivers said. “Actually doing something that doesn’t involve money or wealth, it just feels so great. I know it’s just shoes to us but to [those receiving them] it’s something even greater.” Rivers said the shoe drive has made him become a better person after asking the community for donations and that his family is proud of him, “They encouraged me to keep doing what I’m doing because it’s not only helping me out as a person but also helping people that need the shoes.” The travel club conducted a previous shoe drive that resulted in 2,600 pairs of shoes shipped to Honduras, Bolivia, Ghana and Haiti. The idea to start shoe drives came when the club took a trip to Guatemala in 2016 to help build schools. “I’m very proud to see the teamwork of the students,” said Maronda Hastie, McNair High School teacher and travel club leader. “I’m proud to see the leadership and how they contacted other companies to assist us. They got their families involved and the community, so it was definitely a collective effort. It was nice to see the final product and to see them make an impact.” Cameras for DeKalb County School District buses are under consideration. Photo by Taylor Robins. Special needs school bus cameras ‘remain under consideration’ BY TAYLOR ROBINS taylor@dekalbchamp.com DeKalb County School District (DCSD) officials are considering placing cameras in school buses that do not have them after a parent raised concerns at the Jan. 24 On the Scene with Dr. Green. The parent of a Bob Mathis Elementary School second grader named Malachi informed school district officials and event attendees that her son rides on a special needs bus and had fallen earlier in the school year, hit his head and was sent to the hospital. The parent said she was not notified of the incident by the district; however, she was notified from her older child that Malachi had come home from school with blood on his shirt. The parent also said that an investigation of the incident involving Malachi revealed that DCSD special needs school buses are not equipped with operating and functioning cameras “so a lot of our babies who are special needs are nonverbal and aren’t able to articulate what has happened to them.” The parent asked district officials if any money is available to equip buses for special needs students with cameras. “How are we to know what truly happens to our children when they are hurt on the school bus?” the parent asked. DCSD Superintendent R. Stephen Green said he had not heard of the incident regarding the second grader and that incidents that occur on special needs school buses are a “blind spot” for the district due to some students being nonverbal. “I will commit to looking into that and seeing what the cost would be and move forward with what we can do to address that need,” Green said to the parent. The Champion Newspaper followed up with district officials on the matter and received a statement Feb. 21 that says, “DCSD has 387 specially equipped school buses that service between 2,045 and 2,060 students on any given day. District personnel are always reviewing equipment, technology, and tools that help to keep our students safe, as it remains a top priority. A budget proposal has been developed to purchase cameras for the 750 school buses without cameras. The cost for this proposed effort is more than $1.5 million. This effort remains under consideration.” FREE BREAKFAST AND LUNCH EVERY SUNDAY! Sunday School 9:15-10:15 a.m. Sunday Service 10:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m. Wed. Bible Study: 7-8 p.m. Looking for new ushers, choir members and praise team. New Jerusalem Outreach Ministries (770) 981-7408 Sr. Pastor, Dr. Julius Edmondson, Sr.
