Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 14C
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS ThuHKtoy, January 14,1998
Tornado damages portions of Forsyth County
By Michael Kurtz
. Staff Writer
Effects of the deadly tornado that decimated Hall
County Friday morning are being felt here.
Forsyth County Emergency Management Agency
. director Bob Lady said the tornado did a “skip and
jump” through the county about 6:30 a.m. leaving
-destruction in its wake.
“It set down just enough to take out trees and
cause some damage,” said Lady.
The worst hit area was a subdivision off Kelly
Mill Road.
—— ■
lM HL
TRIBUNAL from 12C
The members of the tribunal
are James E. Johnson, Chris Good
and Paul Chambers. The hearing
officer is Bruce Beerman.
The tribunal can recommend to
the board of education to uphold
the non-renewal, find cause but
rule to suspend without pay, find
cause but rule to give a demotion
or renew the contract.
A time limit on when their
decision will issued will be set by
the attorneys depending on when a
transcript will be available.
On Tuesday, Dr. Mary
Chandler, principal of South
Forsyth Middle School, where
Steffey was working for the past
two years, testified.
Opening statements from the
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Five homes received major damages when trees
and other debris were thrown about by the twister.
A house behind the former Cumming Food Center
had a tree land on it, tearing a hole in the roof. Lady
said that home was spared.
“If it hadn’t been for a shed getting hit first, the
home would have been cut in half,” he said.
Residents in the area reported nickel-size hail for
30 seconds, high winds and strobe-like lightning.
Castleberry and Majors roads were also hit hard,
though no property damage was reported.
The roads were closed for four hours while county
Photos/Tom Brooks
Deadly highways
Two sisters and their cousin died as a result of injuries sus
tained in a Sunday, May 17 auto accident on Ga. 400. Kristi
Jane Lawhorne, who was rememebered at high school grad
uation in June, Karri Lawhorne and Tabbatha Renee
Lawhorne died. The death of the teens rocked the local
community. A specialized accident unit worked to recon
struct the mishap. In
board of education’s attorney Phil
Hartley indicated Steffey was fired
due to her lack of professionalism,
insubordination and incompetency.
He said Steffey was transferred
to South Forsyth Middle School to
be an assistant principal for the
1996 school year along with sever
al other employees to give her
more experience. Steffey had pre
viously worked for eight years as
an assistant principal at Coal
Mountain Elementary.
Hartley said Steffey was fre
quently absent from the building
and her attitude toward Chandler
changed in the second year to open
hostility and animosity. He also
said she was unprofessional to
other teachers and many duties,
BEST STORIES OF '9B
1998, there were 30
traffic fatalities on
Forsyth County road
ways. The County
Commission spoke of
the need for safety
improvements during
budget workshops..
The Sheriff’s Office
reported a total of
2,770 accidents durnig
the year.
such as special education, had to
removed from her.
Hartley said the administration
went to extensive efforts to reme
diate the situation. “We ask that
you uphold the decision of the
board,” Hartley said.
Steffey’s attorney, Wyc Orr,
opened by saying there was a
“sharp line of demarcation, such a
sharp delineation in the treatment
toward Susan Steffey before that
suit they referred to was settled
and after that suit was settled.”
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and city workers cleared hundreds of uprooted trees.
Several areas reported power and telephone outages.
Most of the debris was cleared by early afternoon.
Residents in the Cumming Nursing Home were
evacuated to tornado-safe areas Friday morning as a
precaution. Lady said they returned by 8 a.m. and
there were no reports of problems.
Hall County wasn’t so lucky.
At last report, 12 people were dead and more than
100 others were seeking treatment at the Northeast
Georgia Medical Center. One of the dead was a
Dawson County deputy.
Man named to State Holocaust Commission
By Laura Lavezzo
Lifestyle Editor
As International Peace and Good
Will Week begins, it seems appro
priate that Forsyth County resident
Gene Russo is developing an edu
cational program on prejudice
reduction and the dangers of big
otry, violence and hatred.
Russo, one of 15 Georgia resi
dents selected to serve on the
Georgia Commission on the
Holocaust, hopes the program
will be used to train teachers in
school systems statewide. By
focusing on the lessons which can
be learned from a historic event
like the Holocaust, perhaps stu
dents will learn the values of good
citizenship and better appreciate
the differences among people,
Russo said. The primary goal of
the program, to be implemented as
a series of teacher training confer
ences, is to help teachers use the
history of the Holocaust to teach
children that “understanding,
respect, compassion and personal
responsibility must always tri
umph over ignorance, hatred, ruth
lessness and apathy.”
Headed by Gov. Zell Miller, the
Georgia Commission on the
Holocaust is one of only four such
state agencies in the country.
Georgia’s Commission on the
Holocaust includes legislative
liaisons Rep. Michele Henson and
Senator David Scott, and Ex-
Officio members Dr. Steven
Portch, chancellor of the Board of
Regents; Dr. Werner Rogers, exec-
Bobbie Jay Hoenie, 29, of Hall County who died
after stopping to help a motorist involved in a torrta
do-related accident.
The Dawson County Sheriff’s Department has set
up a trust fund to help Hoenie’s family meet burial
expenses. Contributions can be sent to Dawson
County Bank, P.O. Box 159, Dawsonville, Ga. 30534.
The Meadows Funeral Home of Monroe has
charge of the arrangements. A funeral date had not
been set as of Friday night. •
See related story published on March 22,1998.
utive director of Georgia Public
Broadcasting; state Superintendent
of Schools Linda Schrenko; and
Pete Wheeler of the Department
of Veteran Services.
Always an activist for tolerance
and peace among people, Russo
never expected to be offered the
prestigious position. But following
a business trip to Jerusalem in
1985, he and his wife of 40 years,
Ann, were deeply affected when
they went to Yad
Vashem, the “Holocaust
Martyrs’ and Heroes’
Remembrance
Authority,” located on
the Mount of
Remembrance.
Established in 1953 by
an act of the Israeli parliament,
Yad Vashem “enshrines and pre
serves the memory of the six mil
lion Jews annihilated by Nazi
Germany and the thousands of
Jewish communities destroyed in
the process.” The largest
Holocaust archive in the world,
Russo said Yad Vashem is a
library of names of those who
were destroyed during the reign of
the Third Reich. .
According to Russo, a practicing
Christian, the memorial is truly a
scrapbook of Holocaust victims.
People who visit Yad Vashem
often bring photographs and other
momentos of their loved ones to
be included in the collection.
“People come from all over the
world to read the book of names
of those who did not survive,”
Russo said. “Six million Jews
died, and six million non-Jews
died, too,” Russo said. “That’s 12
million members of mankind.”
The Commission, which spon
sored last year’s successful Anne
Frank exhibit in Georgia, plans to
host Eva Schloss as a visiting lec
turer to Atlanta, Macon and
Savannah in April 1999. Schloss,
who is Frank’s stepsister, is the
author of “And Then They Came
That's a million
members of
mankind.
War 11.
Formerly the vice president of
the Communication Workers of
America, Russo almost retired, a
few years ago. But in addition to
his new responsibilities with the
Commission on the Holocaust, he
is now working with former ILS.
Secretary of Labor Bill Usery to
set up the W. J. Usery Jr. Center
for the Workplace at Georgia
State University. The center is
being designed as a labor manage
ment consulting service to pro
vide conflict resolution on issues
such as workplace violence and
sexual harassment.
For information on the Georgia
Commission on the Holocaust,
call (404) 651-9273, or e-mail to
holocaust @ sos.state.ga.us.
Published Oct. 25,1998
for Me,” an
account of
her experi
ences while
hiding from
Nazis dur
ing World