Newspaper Page Text
16 Pages, 2 Sections, Plus Preprints A Publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. Winder, Barrow County, Georgia $1.00 Copy Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Superintendent: Vandalism incidents resulting from social media ‘challenge’
By Scott Thompson
sthompson@barro wne wsj ournal. com
A “challenge” on the social media plat
form TikTok that awards students points for
vandalism and other bad behavior is behind
a recent string of incidents that resulted in
property damage at several Barrow County
schools, superintendent Chris McMichael
told the board of education last week.
School districts in the area and around
the state and country have reported inci
dents connected with the online challeng
es where students are credited with “devi
ous licks” for their acts. During the school
board's Sept. 28 meeting, McMichael said
there had been 31 incidents in September as
of Sept. 22 that were confirmed to be part
of or were believed to be connected to the
challenge. Most of the incidents, he said,
involved damage done in restrooms, in
cluding graffiti tags, soap dispensers being
stolen or taken off walls, and toilets being
damaged. Most of the incidents have oc
curred at the district's high schools, though
two middle schools have also been impact
ed, McMichael said.
The total cost of the damage through
Sept. 22 was estimated to be a little over
$13,000, said Joe Perno, assistant superin
tendent for system operations.
McMichael said a handful of students —
seven or eight — have been identified as
responsible for a significant portion of the
incidents, and disciplinary consequences
have ranged from legal actions to alterna
tive schooling and a plan for the responsible
parties or their parents to pay back the mon
ey for the damage. He said no expulsions
had been handed down as of last week.
“They’re destroying school property, and
that's totally unacceptable,” board member
Lynn Stevens said. “We need to send a mes
sage that we're not going to tolerate this.”
McMichael told the board that TikTok has
monthly “challenges,” including a recent
one, which is to “smack” a teacher or staff
member. He said there had been no known
incidents of that as of last week, but that such
an incident would automatically result in ex
pulsion and likely stiffer legal consequences.
“Let that be a warning to anyone thinking
of attempting that,” McMichael said.
Advance
voting
begins
Tuesday
Advance voting for the
Nov. 2 municipal elections
in Barrow County and the
countywide SPLOST 2023
referendum will begin
Tuesday, Oct. 12.
All advance voting for
the Auburn, Statham and
Winder city council elec
tions and the referendum
will take place at the coun
ty elections office, 233 East
Broad St.. Winder. Dates
and times are 9 a.m. to
5 p.m. Oct. 12-16, Oct. 18-
23 and Oct. 25-29.
Absentee ballot appli
cations are now being ac
cepted through 4 p.m. Oct.
22. You can contact the
county elections office at
770-307-3110 to obtain an
application. Ballots must
be returned to the elections
office no later than 7 p.m.
on Nov. 2.
Election day polling
hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Auburn voters will vote at
Hmong New Hope Alliance
Church, 1622 Union Grove
Church Rd. Statham voters
will vote at Barrow County
Emergency Services Fire
Station 1, 1625 Bethlehem
Rd. Winder voters and all
others will vote at their
county precinct. Your pre
cinct location can be found
on the Georgia Secretary
of State's My Voter Page at
mvp.sos.ga.gov.
Index:
Public safety
5A
School/social
3A
Classifieds
4B
Legals
5-7B
Obituaries
6-7A
Opinion
4A
Sports
1-3, 8B
MAILING LABEL
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Not ‘just part of the job’
Stock photo
Local hospital
officials speaking
out against abuse of
health-care workers
By Ben Munro
ben@mainstreetnews.com
Walking into a patient room isn’t the
same as it used to be for health-care
workers. More and more often the visit
could turn violent.
Abuse against health-care workers
— though not a new problem — is on
the rise. An Occupational Safety and
Health Administration study found
that health-care workers represent
approximately 50% of all victims of
workplace violence.
And the mounting number of inci
dents is taking a toll on those in the
profession, according to one local
health-care worker.
“It’s very stressful,” said Tara
Jemigan, chief nursing executive at
Northeast Georgia Medical Center in
Braselton. “It causes you to really be
thoughtful when you enter a room to
be thinking about what could happen.
It makes some of them wonder are
they in the right profession, did they
make the right choice?”
An incident, which occurred locally,
has served to shed light on the prob
lem.
See Workers, page 2A
Submitted photo
The cast of “The Miss Magnolia Senior Citizen Beauty Pageant” is pictured.
From left to right, back row: Lynn Mulvey, Billie Nye-Muller, David Sullivan,
Tom Manley and Ann Mitchell. Front row: Beverly Rutledge, Andrea Fife, Can
dace Stoffel, Elinor Hasty and Wendy Blessing-Toney. Not pictured are Scott
Jones and Carol Phillpotts.
WBCT to premier ‘Miss Magnolia
Senior Citizen Beauty Pageant’ play
Winder-Barrow Community Theatre
is bringing “live” theater back to Winder
and the surrounding areas this weekend.
“The Miss Magnolia Senior Citizen
Beauty Pageant” will premier on Friday.
Oct. 8, and run for three weekends until
Oct. 24. Friday and Saturday night shows
start at 7:30 p.m., and the Sunday mati
nees will start at 3 p.m. All performances
will be at the Colleen O. Williams The
atre/Winder Cultural Arts Center. 105
East Athens St.
Tickets are available online at www.
winderbarrowtheatre.org by clicking on
the red ticket found on the home page.
Click for online sales, choose the date
you wish to attend, and complete your
order.
Your ticket will be at will call at the
theater when you arrive for the show,
leaders said.
The play is written by Leslie Kimbell. a
Statham resident. She is the author of the
“Four Old Broads” series, and the new
play is the third in the series. WBCT has
performed the world premier of each of
the shows. Leland Karas will be direct
ing with Kim Jones as assistant director.
There will be social distancing in the
theater with limited seating and every
body wearing masks to enter the build
ing.
“WBCT and the City of Winder have
done everything they can to keep every
body safe and well while attending the
show,” leaders said.
For more information, go to the orga
nization's website.
Winder council
candidate Speights
withdraws from race
A Winder City Council
candidate has taken her
name out of the running
for personal reasons.
Beth Speights, one of
three candidates who
qualified this summer
to challenge incumbent
councilman Chris Akins
for the at-large council
seat that is on the Nov. 2
election ballot, told the
Barrow News-Journal
Thursday, Sept. 30, that
she was withdrawing
from the race due to a
family health matter that
recently arose.
That leaves two chal
lengers to the first-term
councilman Akins —
Stephanie Britt and Jerry
Martin. Ward 1 incum
bent Sonny Morris is op
posed by Matthew Red-
fern, Melissa Baughcum
and Yvonne Greenway,
while Ward 3 incumbent
Jimmy Terrell is facing
opposition from Danny
Darby.
In-person advance
voting for the city elec
tion begins Oct. 12, and
absentee ballot applica
tions are currently being
accepted by the Barrow
County elections office.
Statham set to hold
hearings on proposed
millage-rate increase
By Scott Thompson
sthompson@barrownewsjournal.com
The City of Statham appears poised to raise its mill-
age rate next month in a move city officials say is nec
essary to fully fund the fiscal year 2022 budget that
the city council approved this summer and to pay for
larger upcoming infrastructure projects.
The city council at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Oct. 7. will
hold the first of three required public hearings on a
proposed millage increase from 4.003 mills to 4.345
mills, which would mean a 16.6% increase over the
state's proposed “roll back” rate of 3.725 mills. Ad
ditional public hearings are scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct.
19 and 6:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at city hall, 327 Jefferson St.,
with a final vote slated to take place during the coun
cil's Nov. 16 voting session.
The approved FY22 budget for the city includes an
anticipated $1.79 million in General Fund revenue,
$295,000 of which would come from property taxes.
That, according to a report from the city's finance de
partment, would put the city well below the state aver
age for municipalities in terms percentage of General
Fund revenues coming from property taxes — just
under 16.5% as opposed to the state average of 27%.
Because of an increase in home-building in the city,
the state formula for millage rate calculation recom
mends the millage rate be rolled back to 3.725. May
or Joe Piper told the council during a Sept. 9 work
session. But, he said, the formula doesn't take into
account that the city is still getting caught up on its fi
nancial audits, a long-running lapse that has rendered
it ineligible for state grants for capital projects.
And while the city has faced some pushback from
residents on social media about the proposed hike, the
mayor and other officials have pointed to larger proj
ects in the budget that the additional revenue would be
necessary to fund. That includes a well development
project aimed at making the city more water-indepen-
dent long-term and reducing the costs of purchasing
water from Winder and Barrow County. Additional
water, stormwater and sewer infrastructure projects
are included in the FY22 budget, as are larger invest
ments in the police and public works departments.
By comparing the state-recommended rollback rate
and the city-proposed increase, “it looks like the city
is trying to gouge the taxpayers, but we know what
we need to make the bills,” Piper said. “The numbers
given make it look worse than reality.”
If there isn’t support on the council for bumping the
rate to 4.345 mills, the council could instead opt to
keep it at 4.003 or roll back to 3.725. Rolling back.
Piper said, could mean “pretty severe cuts” to the bud
get. That could open up old wounds over a contentious
budget approval process in June, where the council's
initially-approved budget was vetoed by Piper over
his concerns that it jeopardized public safety by taking
money out of the proposed police budget. The council
eventually approved a budget that restored that money
and was closer to the mayor’s original proposal.
See Statham, page 2A