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Wednesday, November 17,2021
dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3A
Dawson County Board of Education
celebrates 2 schools for recent awards
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
During the Nov. 9 meeting of the
Dawson County Board of Education,
board members recognized Robinson
Elementary School and Black’s Mill
Elementary School for two awards that
were recently given to the schools by
the Georgia Association of Elementary
School Principals (GAESP) during the
association’s fall conference.
Black’s Mill Elementary School was
given the 2021 GAESP School Bell
Award for the school’s program, “The
Bear Den”, directed by Media
Specialist Allison Lundy.
According to BMES Principal Cindy
Kinney, the School Bell Award is pre
sented to schools with outstanding pro
grams in the areas of curriculum and
organizational leadership. This year,
the media center, called “The Bear
Den” and directed by Lundy, was cho
sen to win a School Bell Award.
“'The ‘Bear Den’ was pleased to be
nominated this year and to be an award
winner; in the nomination it talked
about promoting a lifelong love of
reading and learning,” Kinney said.
“Some of the words in the nomination
that was turned in to describe Mrs.
Lundy and the things that she does for
our school were collaborative, instruc
tional partner, engaging and creating a
stimulating learning environment.”
Kinney said as the media specialist,
Lundy teaches literacy lessons, intro
duces students and teachers to new dig
ital apps and technology tools, teaches
internet safety and digital citizenship
and gives students the opportunity to
practice using their iPads, apps and the
Apple TV in the media center.
“She also works with our morning
broadcast which is WBME News; it’s a
great way for our fifth grade students to
be leaders in our school and they also
utilize their iPads, tripods, green
screens and iMovie,” Kinney said.
According to Kinney, one way that
Lundy helps the school to excel
through her position as the media spe
cialist is by creating leadership oppor
tunities for the students and fun ways
for them to learn to love reading. This
includes programs like “library lead
ers”, in which the fourth grade students
help out in the media center, and fun
activities like the “March Madness
book bracket”, when students and their
Photo courtesy of the Dawson County BOE
Black's Mill Elementary School
recently won a 2021 GAESP
School Bell Award for the
school's program, "The Bear
Den", directed by Media
Specialist Allison Lundy.
parents can vote on their favorite books
in a competition to see which book
comes out on top.
“We figured out that if you give stu
dents a chance to be leaders in your
school they love it, and we love to pro
mote our students as leaders,” Kinney
said. “[Lundy does] community reader
visits, dress up days for Read Across
America, March Madness book battles
— she does a fantastic job.”
Kinney said Lundy is very deserving
of the School Bell Award for the job
she does in the school’s media center.
“We’re so proud to have her as a part
of our family at Black’s Mill, and we
were so excited to be able to stand
beside her as she received the School
Bell award,” Kinney said.
Robinson Elementary School was
also part of the presentation of a 2021
GAESP Award, the Education Patron
Award, which was presented to the
Dawson County Woman’s Club for
their support of Robinson and the pro
grams at the elementary school.
According to RES Principal Page
Amette, over the last two years the
relationship between Robinson and the
Dawson County Woman’s Club has
become deeper and been able to pro
duce quite a lot of support and assis
tance for the school by the women in
the club.
“Our Dawson County Woman’s
Club has an education committee, and
the chairwoman MG Finch came to me
and said she would like to support our
school,” Amette said, “and it didn’t
take us very long to see that we had a
great fit for needs in our school and
expertise that so many of these ladies
were willing to bring.”
Amette said the women in the club
have supported Robinson in dozens of
ways, from helping transport cardboard
boxes from the school to the recycling
center for the student recycling pro
gram to helping procure and install a
Little Free Library outside of the
school building.
“They helped with our book fairs —
we always need volunteers for that to
be able to serve all of our students —
and during the year they provided
snacks and drinks for our teachers who
had a difficult year,” Amette said.
“I know I’m probably forgetting
something that they do for us, but they
have just been such a part of our school
and really brought such a rich experi
ence to our kids that we wouldn’t have
without them.”
Finch, on behalf of herself and the
other Woman’s Club members in atten
dance at the meeting, said being a part
of the support system for Robinson and
the students there has been rewarding
for her and the others in the club.
“We’re delighted; the gift of books
to us is huge and it’s a great school to
work with,” Finch said.
Superintendent Damon Gibbs also
thanked the Woman’s Club members
during the meeting for their support of
not only Robinson, but of the entire
school system.
“These ladies not only work with
Robinson, they’re supportive of our
school system and they’ve been great
friends to me and to our school system
over the last eight years,” Gibbs said
during the meeting. “So thank you
and we appreciate you very much.”
The Woman’s Club was given a
2021 GAESP Education Patron
Award for their service with
Robinson. Amette said that she and
the rest of the school administrators
couldn’t be happier that the club is
getting recognition for all of their hard
work.
“I am super excited to get to honor
these ladies,” Amette said. “They have
become great friends of Robinson
over the last two years.”
FROM 1A
BOE
members that have been
actively working since
Sept. 1.”
Board members
approved the supplement
immediately and unani
mously, prompting looks
of happy surprise and
clapping from the princi
pals and other school
staff in attendance at the
meeting. The board
members took time to
personally thank the
employees in attendance
for their work in serving
the children in the school
system.
“It’s a Christmas pres
ent from all of us,”
Chairwoman Elaine
Wilson said. “You do it
for the right reasons for
our kids — we wish we
could do more, but we’re
so happy we could do
that much.”
Board member Doris
Cook thanked employees
for not only their effort
so far this year, but also
for their effort last year
during the height of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“Thank y’all for all
that you’ve done; as Dr.
Gibbs said it’s been a
hard year, really a hard
two years, so thank y’all
so much,” Cook said.
Board member Karen
Armstrong said she was
glad the board was able
to approve a tangible
thank-you to the system’s
employees, and told the
principals in attendance
to pass on the board’s
sincere thanks to the
employees who weren’t
at the meeting in person.
“We do appreciate
you, and we’re so glad
that we can do something
to say thanks,”
Armstrong said. “Thank
you in words is nice but a
little something mone
tary is always welcome
— so let everybody
know how much we real
ly and truly appreciate
them.”
FROM 1A
Cheer
throughout the entire
regular season until
Saturday’s meet.
“We have overcome
lots of obstacles to get to
the level we competed at
on Saturday,” Fleming
said. “This past Saturday
was the first time we
have had all sixteen team
members on the floor. I
do not think we have
peaked yet and I am very
hopeful we do that
Friday at the State finals.”
The team now
advances to the state
finals, where they will
battle against 15 other
top cheerleading teams
in 3A for a chance to
win a state title.
Dawson County has
never won a cheerlead
ing state championship.
Jacob Smith Dawson County News
The Dawson County cheer team celebrates
after being named Region Champions with
an overall score of 97/100.
FROM 2A
Trial
accidentally shot herself
after he’d handed her the
gun. He said he was
showing it to her to prove
he had “the tools” to
accomplish stealing from
the dealer and said she
held the weapon incor
rectly as she looked down
at her phone.
In the aftermath of the
shooting, Stryker testified
about deciding to stab
Bender to try to alleviate
body fluid weight. He
admitted to him and Reid
wrapping her body in a
blanket and putting it in
Huff’s fire pit. He and
Bailey Williams admitted
to disposing of Bender's
belongings near a camp
site off of Nimblewill
Gap Road.
Reid and Stryker
admitted to moving the
remains to a Blacks Mill
Road residence on Sept.
16 using a toolbox that
came from the truck and
then stripping the vehicle
of its parts, with
Donaldson also allegedly
helping.
A person living at the
Blacks Mill property tes
tified about witnessing
the car cleanup and some
of Stryker’s search for the
items disposed of near the
Nimblewill campground.
A farmer, as well as
Stryker, testified about
the defendant and Harper
coming over to a farm
property in Forsyth
County to give away the
Mazda truck. Stryker
admitted to burying
Bender.
Reid testified that
Stryker had asked him to
put dirt over the shallow
grave. Reid agreed to do
so until he eventually led
authorities to the site.
Stryker also said that
after others refused,
Harper took him to West
Virginia, where he initial
ly wanted to stay at an ex
girlfriend’s place before
he ended up temporarily
homeless.
After Bender’s mother
reported her missing on
Sept. 19, law enforcement
discovered the Mazda
truck on Sept. 24, 2019.
The next morning,
authorities recovered her
body from a shallow
grave in northern Forsyth
County.
Stryker turned himself
into authorities in
Pittsburgh, Pa. on Oct. 2,
2019. Meanwhile,
Donaldson was arrested on
Sept. 25, while Harper was
booked two days later.
Huff and Reid were arrest
ed on Sept. 30. The next
day, Williams was booked
in Lumpkin County.
Experts testify
On Nov. 4, the state’s
medical examiner, Keith
Lehman, clarified that
despite uncertainty over
the order in which
Bender’s wounds were
inflicted, her cause of
death was from shooting
and stabbing, and he clas
sified the manner of death
as homicide.
Bender died from a
gunshot wound to the
head and at least 32 stab
wounds to her neck, back,
chest and side.
Furthermore, ballistics
expert and Georgia
Bureau of Investigation
special agent William
Edison discussed the dif
ficulties of accidentally
shooting oneself with a
Ruger .380, given its
internal safety features.
He added mistakenly
pulling the trigger with an
inverted index finger and
thumb position, like
Stryker claimed, would
likewise be challenging.
Edison also said in his
experience as a firearms
safety instructor, people
unaccustomed to firearms
like Bender are typically
unwilling or heavily cau
tious about holding weap
ons at all.
Whats next
Stryker was immediate
ly taken into custody
upon the announcement
of his verdict. As previ
ously mentioned, his sen
tencing hearing is expect
ed to occur in the coming
weeks.
DCN and its affiliate
newspapers will provide
updates about his sen
tencing and the others’
cases as more information
becomes available.
EARLY DEADLINES FOR
THANKSGIVING DAY
Because of the upcoming Thanksgiving Day holiday the Dawson County News
wiii alter its advertising and legals deadline as follows:
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Obituaries
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DawsonNews com
Will be CLOSED Thursday, Nov. 25 in observance of Thanksgiving.
WINTER SPORTS
— IN THIS EDITION OF ~
DAWSON COUNTY
NEWS
