About Fayette County news. (Fayetteville, GA) 2009-current | View Entire Issue (July 5, 2023)
Wednesday, July 5,2023 Fayette County News A3 Chamber loins Henry, Clayton at DEI Summit Brigitte Greer Staff Writer bgreer@fayette-news.net Fayette County Chamber of Commerce teamed up with Henry County’s and Clayton County’s chambers of commerce for the Stronger Together Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Summit. Hosted by Henry County Chamber of Commerce, the summit allowed business owners and executives from across the three counties to engage in workshops to learn how to promote, support, and maintain diversity, equity, and inclusion within their company and their community. The summit was held Tuesday, June 27, at the Merle Manders Conference Center in Stockbridge. Business executives listen to a lecture at the Stronger Together Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Summit in Henry County. BOE, Continued from Front ignated the platform Par- entSquare as the most easy and accessible sole method of communication to bridge the communication gap be tween schools, parents, and families. “I had some really good conversations with refer ences who were using the platform and they really said that this was a really beneficial resource,” Farmer said. While the platform has many variations, Farmer said that the first goal would be to ensure that the teachers were acclimated to the platform first, and then working in the other aspects of the platform, like its stu dent affiliate, StudentS- quare. Following discussion, board members were pre sented with proposed changes in the student code of conduct, and board member Dr. Regina Daigre voiced concern when the topic of expulsions and qualification of expulsions did not include the use of racial slurs as “bullying,” but rather “harassment.” According to the current handbook, the definition for “harassment” is “any act of harassment based upon race, color, religion, na tional origin, disability, and gender. This includes, but is not limited to, sexual ha rassment as used in connec tion with Title IX of the education amendments of 1972.” Although this is listed as the definition, Daigre be lieves that there should be a consequence in place that highlights the aspect of bul lying to correct the behav ior, rather than only implementing a punish ment like being out of school. “I’m just saying that when there are some racial slurs, they should be seen as ‘bullying’,” Daigre said, “and I’m speaking on what has even brought to me. It seems like nothing is being done.” Superintendent Dr. Jo nathan Patterson assured Daigre that there are con sequences for these negative actions and that the school system is “doing some thing.” Additional documents brought to the board for re vision were tied to student handbooks for elementary school and high school stu dents. According to the super intendent’s report, the stu dent code of conduct and handbook revisions entailed the addition of the Georgia Student Health Survey (GSHS) to the elementary school student and parent/guardian signature page. According to the revised document, the survey is an anonymous statewide sur vey instrument that dis cusses different topics that impact a schools’ climate. Topics include peer and adult social support, bully ing, mental health, sub stance abuse, and suicidal ideation. Parents have the option to “opt-out” of the survey if they so choose. For the secondary stu dent and parent/guardian signature page, there are options for parents to now opt out of allowing the school to provide their high school student’s directory information to U.S. military recruiters and institutions for higher learning. Parents can also choose whether their student will participate in the Georgia Student Health Survey II for stu dents in grades six through 12 for substance abuse and violence. Lastly, the signa ture page includes the op tion for parents to allow their child to participle in Fayette FACTOR and Drug Free Fayette Coalition sur veys. Following, the board discussed possible cell phone policy changes in high schools. The prior procedures of cell phones use varied per school, sub ject area, and teacher imple menting the guideline. Attendees heard from Yolanda Briggs-Johnson, principal of Fayette County High School, and Susan King, a teacher and social studies department chair of Starr’s Mill High School. Briggs-Johnson high lighted the method that Fayette County High School currently uses to maintain the structure and focus of students as they navigate through the school day. She stated that Fayette County High School had 44 cell phone violations throughout the 180 school days. King followed Briggs- Johnson by discussing how she navigates the use of cell phones in the classroom. She emphasized that while she is not against students having cell phones, she does see the personal device in the classroom as a “double- edged sword.” “It’s not like a drug add iction or like things are bad, because I think that some of the students are actually using their phones, some times, to do things that we actually want them to do,” King said, “which is why I adopted the use of a ‘cell phone pouch’. This is my at tendance method. So, I know whose phone is sup posed to go in which pouch. In my classroom, it’s right in the front. Kids come in the door, they deposit their cell phones, and I use that as a visual scan as to who is here.” King emphasized that she is not against cell phones, but highlighted the struggles of monitoring and understanding what stu dents are truly using their phones for during the day. Her only “hang up” about the method is how to mon itor smartwatches and wearable technology. Daigre stated that she wanted to know what the solution would be to coexist with cell phones and tech nology. “I believe part of it is good, but there is a liability issue here, and I don’t know how we would get around that,” Daigre said. Briggs-Johnson reiter ated that teachers and fac ulty want students to focus on learning in the class room, and it is up to the teacher to implement the cell phone guidelines that work for their classroom. 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