Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current, October 10, 2013, Image 20

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Newspaper Page TextContinued from Page 1A Assault reason to believe his son was ever bullied at school, as the son has always enjoyed going and said he liked school. He never told the father he was having trouble with any other students there. “I never heard the words ‘picked-on’ come out of his mouth,” he said. The single father said this as sault has created a challenge for their family. Since it happened, he has not been able to work and provides medical homeschool lessons. He said his son essen tially gets little education now and “is in danger of losing the progress he has made.” But the father said he has to work — “if I don’t work, we don’t eat,” he said. Sending him back to the school at this time was flatly stated as not even something that will be consid ered, said the father. The father said the ordeal began when his son returned home from school on September 19th. The son said he was sick at his stomach and went into a bath room at their home and stayed there for a very long time. He said when he finally got him to open the door, he had blood run ning down his legs and said, “I’ve been messed with.” The father said he immedi ately rushed his son to Piedmont Mountainside and they trans ferred him to Scottish Rite. Scot tish Rite reported the possible sexual assault to Pickens author ities about midnight. The father said he is bothered by people who put comments on the inter net questioning whether he de layed taking the injured child to Continued from Page 1A Bear everything from expensive tele photo lenses to moms and kids with cell phones getting a nature lesson were in town to check out the mostly napping bear. One person commented, “We should run a bear up a tree every weekend to bring people to Jasper.” Another said it looked like the Cades Cove park with everyone around a tree taking bear photos. Another commented that it would be a good chance for someone thinking about running for city council or mayor to ad vocate they would not tolerate bears running loose through the city if elected. By 3 p.m. Jasper police offi cers were asking people to keep more distance from the tree with the bear 40 feet off the ground and also asking people to move along after a photo or two. One officer said the bear had been looking at the ground and rustling around every once in a while - the officer thought that could indicate it was getting ready to move on. The two officers both ex pressed safety concerns if the bear suddenly bolted - though bears will flee, they will not at tack people in normal conditions. The concern of injuries from a panic caused by the sudden de parture of a large bear through a crowd on a busy street seemed a likely scenario to this reporter. The officers also expressed worries that the bear had been without water since the night be fore and was likely under stress due to all the commotion it had created. By about 4 p.m. officers with state DNR arrived and chased the bear out of the tree using rubber bullets. Jasper Animal Control Officer Lonnie Waters said he had called the wildlife officials about yet another bear (this one unfortunately hit and killed by a car on Hood Road) and during the conversation he told them of the treed attraction. “I told them it wasn’t really bothering anything, but they saw the crowd as a safety concern,” Waters said. “If it wasn’t going Continued from Page 1A Drink cars in the dead of night, moonshine makers are now get ting on the right side of the law and selling legally throughout the nation. The closest distillery is most notably our neighbors to the east at Dawsonville Moon shine. The other Georgia distillery is Ivy Mountain Distillery in Mt. Airy which has moonshine and sour mash and (once the most common around here) var ious fruit brandies. At 61 Main, Jasper’s farm- to-table dining destination, a moonshine-based drink is their most popular. “Our signature drink is one we call the Jasper Jackass,” said Manager Rob Jarrett. “It’s our version of the Moscow Mule and we use moonshine from the Dawsonville distillery. It’s probably our most popular drink. We ran it as a special drink in the spring of last year but it was so popular we have it permanently on the menu now.” Moonshine, ginger beer, lemon-lime and pomegranate juice, Jarrett said, all mix to gether for the Jasper Jackass. Moonshine from the Daw sonville distillery and Mt. Airy are both featured at Buckhead’s Stillhouse Moonshine and Burger Bar. According to the Dawsonville distillery’s web site, they use traditional recipes from over 150 years ago that have been passed down from generation to generation. Moonshine, white lightning, hooch, and mountain dew are all terms used to describe high- proof distilled spirits and trendy restaurants are taking the age- old mixture and bringing new life to traditional gin and vodka- based libations. Using moon shine - once a forbidden drink - to concoct drinks like Old Fash ioned, Mojitos, and Cosmopoli tans, may seem as out of place as a June Bug in December, but the result is nothing short of wonderful. “Using corn-based moon shine just adds a nice sweetness to the cocktail,” said Nicholas Bustos head mixologist at Still- house. Bustos said any drink which uses gin, vodka or even rum can be made using the different moonshines. He said he has ex perimented with the mixes but has been surprised by the versa tility of the white lightning. Moonshine, which is com pletely legal as long as taxes are paid on the product, has been around since the 1800s. Most recently during the 20s and 30s, moonshiners and bootleggers - the ones who smuggled and transported the product - raced cars packed with moonshine at night to avoid police. Outrun ning the authorities while haul ing the loads from North Georgia down to Atlanta grew into the NASCAR racing series and in fact, the winner of the first ever NASCAR race had used the same car to make a bootleg run just a week earlier. Moonshine is different from the whiskey you find on the shelf at a liquor store primarily for its aging process - or lack thereof, according to howstuff- works.com. When whiskey comes out of a still, it’s clear and looks like water. Moonshiners bottle it and sell it as is, while commercial alcohols have an amber or golden color to them because they are aged for years in charred oak barrels. The aging process gives them color and calms the harsh taste. Whether out of curiosity or because it was outlawed for so long, demand for the back- woods beverage is booming both around town and in swank restaurants around the country. The popularity of the product, restauranteurs say, is that con sumers demand products that are distinctive, novel and per ceived as local. One of the largest moonshine producers in the country, Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery, which opened in Gatlinburg, Tenn. in 2010, sold roughly 250,000 to 280,000 cases of moonshine in 2012, a jump from 50,000 in 2010 and 80,000 in 2011, according to Time mag azine. Stillhouse is located at 56 East Andrews Drive in Buck- head. 61 Main is located in downtown Jasper. JASPER NAILS Professionaf 9\[ai[ Care Service • Acrylic • Spa Pedicure • Gel Nails • Silk Wrap ’ Solar Nails • Manicure • Diamond Nails • Waxing Gift Certificates Available 706-253-5530 Appt. & Walk-Ins Welcome! Monday - Saturday 10 AM - 7 PM 295 North Main St., Suite J Full Set $22.00 (Located by Mtn. Video) Fill In $16.00 THURSDAY. OCTOBER 10, 2013 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 21A the hospital or reporting it until midnight. He said he moved quickly when he realized what had happened. Regarding the case, the father said he knows the sheriff and GBI officers have worked long horns, but he remains “puzzled” by why they can’t make an ar rest. He said he sat through three forensic interviews with his son, one interview at Scottish Rite with a doctor and a social worker and another follow up at the jail where they watched security tapes from the school. He said he feels his son has been through enough and doesn’t want him to go through any further inter views. He said he knows there are “loose ends” particularly con cerning when the attack oc curred. But he said his son has clearly identified the bathroom on campus where it occurred and to come down on its own, it ended the best possible way.” Waters said the rubber bullets likely stung the bear but it was pretty high and most likely “just agitated it.” In any event, Waters assured people the bear wasn’t “wounded or shot with real bul lets.” He has fielded several complaints from people who thought they were trying to kill it or had left it wounded. Once it had been shot with the rubber bullets several times, the bear came down the tree at a normal bear pace according to Waters and fled into the nearby woods behind Jasper First Bap tist. It has not been seen since. Waters said the game and fish officers say the rubber bullets leave an impression with bears and they generally avoid areas where they have been shot be fore, but they don’t go too far. Waters said the rubber bullets are a great way to get them off a single street but they won’t scare them out of a whole subdivision. Waters said he knew one case where a bear climbed a tree near a busy bam and stayed there for three days - apparently afraid to venture down. The animal control officer stressed that bears do not ran domly attack people and won’t normally charge anyone, but with a bear stuck in a tree for several days with no food or water and under stress it “might be aggressive.” “With the Marble Festival coming up, it needed to come down,” he said. “We didn’t need it deciding to come down right into the middle of the road race.” also identified one student who he said did it and who was “creepy.” “I know without a shadow of a doubt that it happened at that school,” he said. He said his son was visibly upset when the student he iden tified as the attacker was shown on a security video. But the father said it’s not clear, even after the interviews, when the attack occurred. The injuries were spotted by the fa ther Thursday, but videos that day don’t match other state ments the victim made regarding the assault and the video that shows the victim and potential attacker entering the bathroom together is from a couple of days earlier and shows other people entering and leaving the bath room at the same time, accord ing to what the father said. The father said he has been told delayed bleeding is not un heard of in sexual assault cases like this. The father said he thought his son was supposed to be moni tored constantly at school due to his special education status and because the son has seizures. But, he said the security tapes clearly showed his son unsuper vised in the hallways. Sheriff Donnie Craig said in a Continued from Page 1A SAT mum total combined score of 2400. Preparation for the SAT can be key in earning high marks on the test. According to Eddie Mc Donald, Pickens High School Principal, “We implemented a SAT prep class last year, which continues, and have increased the number of advanced place ment and honors classes offered at the high school. Both of these initiatives may continue to help our students achieve well on the SAT.” Perry added that PHS teachers have implemented a focus on SAT preparation and rigorous in struction across the curriculum brief phone interview Monday that this case remains challeng ing but they could not release any further public statements on it. and this has been aided by the new Bring Your Own Device ini tiative. In order to prepare for the SAT “there has been a change in the curriculum that includes fo cused vocabulary instruction and an increase in rigor through the College and Career Georgia Per formance Standards,” Dr. Perry said. “Students are also encour aged to participate in Dual En rollment and Move on When Ready Programs.” Submit an article news@pickensprogress.com Why Call Us ? 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Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current, October 10, 2013, Image 20