About The Georgia post. (Knoxville, Crawford County, Ga.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 2013)
Children s Knitting Class 10 -11 a.m., Sat., Feb. 2nd SB Adult Knitting Classes, 5 & Crafty Mama’s, downtown Roberta SsSssSS' 1 '"jL > 66 Recreation Baseball/ ■ Softball Reg istration Saturday, February 2 at recreation fields, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 7ks Uoice, of Ctcuufo&sL County tines, 7927 ffflbo 6ste/mg t/Tyto/i & ^Pexzciv Co. J Thursday, January 31,2013 2 Sections, 14 Pages Miscommunication? Parents, Children Summoned To Juvenile Court By Abigail Adams The Georgia Post Fifty angry parents had to appear in court with their child concerning absences from school recently. On Thursday, January 24th the Ju venile Court in Peach County saw about 50 angry parents from Craw ford County in their courtroom. The parents had been summoned to court along with their children to an infor mal hearing for being absent from school for more than eight days and, as one parent said, “were treated as though they were bad students.” About 25 to 30 students from Crawford County Middle School re ceived summons to a hearing held at the Juvenile Court in Peach County over their Christmas break. One student was on vacation at the time and as his mother, Tammy McCarty, stated, “he could not enjoy the rest of his trip,” because he was too wor ried about the reason for the sub poena which she said the Sheriff’s department refused to tell them. The situation became worse as about 50 very upset parents filled the Juvenile courtroom on the date of the hearing to find out why their children were being summoned to court. The confusion increased as they were told that they had been summoned for unexcused absences. McCarty felt the children, who she said were good students, were being labeled as bad children as the court offered them counseling for their absences. “I felt like we (the parents) as well as our children were being pun ished,” McCarty stated. “When they asked me why I felt we were being punished I told them, we have all missed a day of work and the chil dren have all missed a day of school and that was apparently the reason we were there in the first place.” McCarty was also upset that she saw no representation from the school system in the hearing and felt there should have been. She brought her own son’s report card to the hear ing to show that his grades were not suffering from missing the days at school and stated in the hearing she didn’t know why she had not been informed before the summons were presented to her family. As the hearing went on the per son in charge, Mrs. Lynn Kennedy was stunned to find out that none of the parents had been informed through the proper process that was required of the school before reach ing the step of being summoned to court. According to school superin tendent, John Douglas and middle school principal Dr. Anthony Eng lish, due to the loss of their full time attendance clerk, excuses for absences had not been put into the system when the Juvenile Court had requested the records and notifica tions to parents had not been sent. As stated in the handbook the pol icy on absences is as follows: Phase 1- The principal or his des ignee is to begin a file on the student when he/she has three unexcused absences. The principal (designee) will make contact with the parents. The school will retain a copy of all correspondence in the student’s file. After the fifth day of unexcused ab sences, according to Georgia law, a student is considered Truant and a letter will be mailed to the parents. Phase 2- On the sixth day of un excused absence, the principal (des ignee) will notify parent of further actions to be taken. This notifica tion will explain the parent is in violation of Georgia’s Compulsory School Attendance Law. The parent is requested to make contact with the attendance clerk immediately regarding the absences. Failure to make contact results in the principal (designee) beginning proceedings to have the parents or guardians is sued a citation to appear in court. If this happens, one could be subject to a fine of up to $100 per day for each day the child is not in school or imprisonment, not exceeding 30 days, or both, at the discretion of the court having jurisdiction. Phase 3- The principal (designee) will continue to track unexcused absences. Appropriate notification will be made at the following inter vals: 10,15,20, and 21 days. Letters are to be mailed to the parent at each interval. The handbook also states that be ing absence more than ten days can prevent a student, 14 years or older, from getting their driver’s license or have their license suspended. After every attempt to resolve attendance issues within the school have been made then the school will send at tendance records to Juvenile Court to schedule an Informal Adjustment Hearing. As was stated by Douglas, Eng lish and Mrs. Latonya Ages, the rep resentative of the Juvenile Court in charge of this matter, the issue was the product of a miscommunication. Due to the lack of an attendance clerk at the middle school, the at tendance records sent to the court were not correct and both Douglas and English were unaware of the fact that the records were going to be used to issue summons. Ages stated that the court was unaware that the school had not fol lowed procedure before sending the records and that most of the students on the list should not have been sum moned to a hearing at all. She stated that no prosecutions were made in the informal hearing and that the parents present were educated on what could happen if their child did have more than the allowed unex cused absences (5 days). An excused absence is defined in the handbook as an absence that a parent has provided written docu mentation as to why the child was absent. The excuse must have; the date of the absence, the student’s name, the reason for the absence, and the parent or guardian’s signa ture. Accepted reasons for absence are; personal illness, death of a member of the family, a court or der or an order by a governmental agency, celebration of state recog nized religious holidays, conditions rendering attendance impossible or hazardous to student health or safe ty, one day to register to vote, or at tendance at a school sanctioned or parental sanctioned event. To be sure that no other incident like this happens again Ages plans to meet with Douglas this week to discuss and be sure that policy and procedure are followed in the fu ture. McCarty stated that from now on she will be hand delivering all her son’s absence excuses. She also stated that she feels the school owes the parents of the students who were summoned an apology for the time lost from work and from school due to the misunderstanding. Officer Wes Griffis Brings DARE Here By Abigail Adams The Georgia Post Roberta City Police Officer Wes Griffis is no stranger to the DARE program. Grow ing up his closest mentor throughout his junior high and high school days was his football coach, school resource officer, and DARE instructor Deputy Carl Tip- ton, of the Seminole County Sheriff’s Of fice. When RPD Chief Benny Thomas asked Griffis if he would be interested in teaching DARE to Crawford County students he jumped at the chance. “The training was two weeks of the most mentally and even physically exhaust ing training I have ever at tended,” Griffis said. “When offered to teach DARE, it was a no brainer. I am very glad that I was trained as a DARE instructor. I feel that it made me a better person at work and in my home life.” The DARE program helps to teach students in all three schools (elementary, middle and high) about the impor tance of saying no to drugs, but it also provides other life lessons to children, such as being a good citizen and mak ing wise life choices. To Griffis, his role in shap ing the future through teach ing children in the DARE program, is a very important one and one he plans to take very seriously. Though dona tions from the community paid for Griffis’s training and for some supplies to begin the program, it will still need further funding to con tinue as planned. “DARE has been received by the community with open arms. We greatly appreciate all the contributions that have been made by our local busi ness owners and citizens to support the effort. In the fu ture we are looking forward to holding fundraisers such as book fairs at the schools, car washes, barbeques, and more. We also hope to partner with the Crawford County Board of Education to implement a full-time school resource of ficer to work throughout the three schools, who can devote Griffis in the classroom at his or her time to the safety and well-being of the students as well as teaching the DARE program year round,” Griffis stated. Griffis feels that the pro gram is going very well so far, even in its early stages. He currently teaches fifth grade students at the elementary school two days out of the week and is planning to start teaching at the middle and high schools later on in the school year. The program is ten weeks long with a “gradu ation” at the completion of the program where Griffis will hand out certificates to those who completed the course. “We were given a quote in DARE officer training that I keep on the dash of my patrol CCES. car that reads, ‘One hundred years from now it won’t mat ter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much money I had in the bank, nor what my clothes looked like, but the world may be a little better because I was important in the life of a child.’ I hold this very near and dear to me and I am hon ored and privileged to have the opportunity to make a difference in the life of these children who are the future of our society.” To find out how you can help the DARE program and Griffis continue to make a dif ference in the lives of Craw ford County students by mak ing a donation call the Roberta City Hall at 478-836-3119. Get Nominations, Reservations In For Chamber s Annual Dinner By Victoria Simmons The Georgia Post January ends today and that means the Roberta- Crawford County Chamber of Commerce Annual Meet ing is just around the comer. Held in February each year, it has been scheduled for Monday the 18th, 7 p.m. and will be held at Camp Grace which has plenty of leg room. Tickets are just $30 or you can reserve a table of eight for $200. No tickets will be issued. You must make res ervations by February 10th, with payment through the RCCCOC. No tickets will be available for purchase at the door on the evening of the event. The speaker will be Dr. Billy Browning. The Business Expo is from 6-7 p.m. so if you want to highlight your busi ness please contact David McLeighton 478-957-7399 or Patti at the Chamber, 478-836-3825. There will be plenty of room to display and highlight your company. As always the Chamber will recognize some of our citizen’s contribution to the community. Nominations for Individual of the Year, Group of the Year and Youth of the Year and a new cat egory Unsung Hero, are now being solicited. Group of the Year is no longer limited to youth groups. Unsung Hero will not be considered on a yearly basis. This is to honor a group/individual that serves the community on a daily or routine basis without recognition of who assists the community or an individual in an extraor dinary way. Nomination forms can be found on the chamber website www. robertacrafordchamber. org under “News/Awards”, or may be obtained at the chamber office. Nominations should be returned no later than February 8, 2013. For more information call the Chamber or meail rcccoc@ pstel.net. Correction The annual Peaches to Beaches will be held March 8 & 9th. We re ceived conflicting news releases and went with the wrong dates last week. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Also the number to call is 478-836-3825 to dis cuss this event.
