About Barrow journal. (Winder, Ga.) 2008-2016 | View Entire Issue (April 13, 2016)
PAGE 4A BARROW JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2016 Opinions “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. ~ Thomas Jefferson ~ Your elected officials want to keep you in the dark Smith continues to do the right thing as sheriff There continues to be a divide among law enforcement, regardless of the loca tion or community, and a high percentage of citizens. It’s understand able. Many citizens believe law enforce ment will always protect their own, walking the “thin blue line” to pro tect a fellow officer, regardless of the sit uation. While most think of law enforce ment in this way it’s probably true for most professions. For example, I am quicker to defend a journalist than someone might who doesn’t work in this field. A high school coach has a fraternity (or sorority) with fellow coaches. If we feel someone in our chosen profession is attacked, verbally or otherwise, then it’s natural, at first at least, to come to that person’s defense. We feel we know better about what someone else in our profession is going through than someone on the outside looking in. It’s probably more true in law enforce ment because the men and women who work in this field often have to put their lives on the line. They don’t do it for the pay, rather, they are legitimately trying to serve their community. Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith has drawn praise from this columnist before for being able to see through whatever thin, blue line may exist locally. If some one in his department does wrong, he is going to deal with that person. He doesn’t apologize for it. He certainly doesn’t believe he should turn a blind eye to a wrongdoing simply because the person in question also wears a law enforcement uniform. A recent case, highlighed in last week’s edition, detailed how a former deputy with the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office is facing some serious charges following actions he allegedly took while transport ing a female prisoner. Even before the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested the former deputy, Smith had already dismissed William Stephenson Mitchell, who had been employed by the BCSO for several years. Mitchell is facing several felony charges after reports indicated he turned off the camera in his vehicle during the incident. “The camera was cut off and he took advantage of the situation and then brought the inmate into the facility as if nothing happened,” Smith said. While stressing that all employees should not be judged by the actions of one individual, Smith, with his quick and decisive action, once again has shown Barrow County citizens that if someone he employs does wrong, it will not be tolerated. He does not automatically defend the person simply because they are issued a badge and a gun. The allegations against Mitchell are of an extremely serious nature. The investi gation by the GBI is ongoing and it leaves the possibility open that perhaps this was not the first time something of this nature occurred. Afterall, it’s common thinking that many people don’t get caught the first time they attempt something wrong. However the investigation plays out, Mitchell is looking at the possibility of some serious prison time if convicted. Smith, in theory, could have suspend ed the deputy or re-assigned him to other duties while the investigation was conducted. Mitchell, like anyone who is arrested for any charge, has not been convicted of any crime in a court of law. However, the sheriff’s action has made it crystal clear to those who work for him and to the Barrow County com munity that no wrong-doing, especially something of this nature, is going to be tolerated, condoned or given a blind eye. Smith’s actions now, and previously in cases like this show he is about doing the right thing and not about defending the actions of a fellow law enforcement officer come hell or high water. Being sheriff in any county is not an easy task. However, Smith has shown time and time again he is more than capable of handling the job. This most recent case is just another in a long line of examples why. Winder resident Chris Bridges is editor of the Barrow Journal. You can reach him at cbridges@barrowjournal.com. Whenever you hear an elected official say they support the concept of “trans parency” in government, you really shouldn’t take them seriously. They usually don’t mean what they’re saying. It is sad but true that a great many of Georgia’s politicians have no intention of being transpar ent about the actions they take. Their goal is to keep people in the dark, and if a citizen is rude enough to complain about what elected officials are doing, they tell them to shut up. You will see this contempt for the public at every level of gov ernment, but seldom as outra geously as a few years ago when Tim Lee, the chairman of the Cobb County Commission, was working out a secret deal to build a new baseball stadium for the Atlanta Braves. Lee finagled an arrangement to com mit nearly $400 million in public funds on a fancy new stadium for the Braves without bothering to tell the other com missioners or taxpayers what he was up to. If you were a Cobb resident and thought your tax dollars would be bet ter spent on schools or roads or police protection, you were slap out of luck. Lee put his scheme into play without holding a referendum or giving critics any say in the matter. When several citizens tried to express their opposition to the Braves give away at a commission meeting, Lee refused to let them speak and had them removed by police. He wasn’t interested in hearing any dissenting opinions. Lee’s actions are a vivid illustration of why the state should have an open records law that requires full disclosure of these kinds of activities by elected officials. There should also be an open meetings law that allows citizens to speak their minds on issues without fear of being dragged away by law enforcement officers. Past attempts to enact such laws, however, have run aground. When Roy Barnes was governor, the Legislature passed and he signed an expansive open records act. After Barnes left office, that law was eroded by the passage of subsequent bills cre ating various loopholes and exemp tions to keep certain records hidden from public view. The General Assembly tried again in 2012, at the urging of Attorney General Sam Olens, and adopted another open records bill that was intended to revise and strengthen the law already on the books. The shortcomings in that law became evident the next year when Tim Lee started meeting secretly with Atlanta Braves’ executives. There was a new attack on the open records law in this year’s legislative ses sion with the passage of SB 323. The bill will allow any state agency, not just the Department of Economic Development, to keep secret public records involving an economic devel opment project “until the economic development project is secured by binding commitment.” SB 323 was amended late in the session so that it also allows athletic departments at public universities to stall for 90 days before responding to any requests for public records, except for those related to non-clerical sala letic directors who work at taxpayer- supported public institutions can hide what they’re doing from public view for as long as three months. The amendment was written to help Kirby Smart, the new football coach at the University of Georgia, keep his recruiting activities under wraps, but there is the potential for all sorts of abuse of this provision. If college athletes are disciplined in a sexual assault case, for exam ple, or if coaches make illegal payments to entice recruits, the new law would make it eas ier to hide any records related to those actions. I’m sure Kirby Smart is a fine person with a lovely wife and family but that’s not a good enough reason to hide records that should be open to the public. As this column is being written, Gov. Nathan Deal hasn’t indicated what action he will take on SB 323. Olens, the onetime champion of open records, has said he won’t ask the governor to veto it. “I play a bigger role in potential bills that I think strongly need to be vetoed,” Olens told a reporter. Government transparency is a great thing for journalists and taxpayers in general. Maybe one day we’ll actually have it in Georgia. Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia Report, an internet news ser vice at gareport.com that reports on state government and politics. He can be reached at tcrawford@gareport. com. Barrow Journal Winder, Barrow County, Ga. www.BarrowJoumal.com Mike Buffington Co-Publisher Scott Buffington Co-Publisher Chris Bridges Editor Jessica Brown Photographer Susan Treadwell Reporter Alex Pace Reporter Sharon Hogan Reporter Jessica Payne Advertising Wesleigh Sagon Photographer Legal Organ of Barrow County SUBSCRIPTIONS: $25.00/yr. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Barrow Journal 77 East May Street Winder, Georgia 30680 Published 52 times per year by Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Winder, Georgia 30680 (USPS 025-132) Email: news@barrowjournal.com Phone: 770-867-NEWS (6397) Fax: 678-425-1435 ries. This means that coaches and ath- tom crawford Too much pressure on students It’s testing season in Georgia. Students in public schools across the state are taking the Georgia Milestones test over the next few weeks. This is the second round of Georgia’s new standardized assessment and this time, it counts. The 2014-15 “test year” is over. Results from this year’s test will count towards high school students’ final grades (20 percent) and will be used to determine whether some younger students are promoted to the next grade. Students that don’t “achieve grade level” in third, fifth and eighth grade reading and score high enough in fifth and eighth grade math will be held back. The Georgia Milestones tests differently than the CRCT previously tested students. The test still has multiple choice questions, like on the CRCT, but it also has open-end ed questions in language arts and math. In math, that could include asking students to not only choose the right multiple choice but also explain how they got to it. The GADOE said these open-ended questions, along with extended response questions, “require students to generate, rather than select, responses.” And the test holds students to higher standards, standards that the GADOE says are aimed at better preparing students for college and careers. But there’s more to college and career preparation than even the most thought out, comprehensive test could ever con tain. A student could get each answer correct on every Georgia Milestones dur ing his schooling, but if he doesn’t have a good work ethic, integrity or dependability he’s not prepared for a career. Employers don’t ask about an applicant’s standard ized test scores during the hiring process. They want to see proof that they can do the job and have relevant experience and knowledge. A test does not prepare a stu dent for that. And students don’t need to know the same content in order to succeed. Putting resources into a statewide standardized test isn’t the best the use of time and money. It does cost money to develop and imple ment a new test. And it costs the education world even more money now that schools are being asked to take the test fully online. With Georgia Milestones, schools were asked to transition to 100 percent online testing within five years. There’s funding available to help local schools with that transition, but that’s still money in educa tion that could be used elsewhere in the classroom. The standardized test also takes time. Not only does it take time to actually give the test, but it takes time to prepare stu dents for what’s on the test. A teacher’s evaluation is affected by a student’s performance on the Georgia Milestones. While the percentage of that effect could decrease from 50 to 30 percent with legislation approved by the Georgia General Assembly this year, that’s still 30 percent. Tying student performance on Georgia Milestones to a teacher’s evaluation will always mean that, to some degree, teach ers have to teach for the test in order to get a good evaluation. The GADOE is limited in its control of that. But it should push for state legislation that brings that percentage down to zero. And it should reconsider the impact of the test on a student’s final grade so that the Georgia Milestones can be treated as what it is: a single test used to evaluate. I think the GADOE realizes that students need to know different things than what’s tested on the Georgia Milestones in order to succeed in life. But putting pressure on students and teachers to score high on a single test gives too much power to that test. It should not be used as something punitive, and it should not be used to control teachers and students and inhibit diversity in learning. Alex Pace is a reporter for the Barrow Journal. You can reach her at apace@barrowjournal. com.
