Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 10A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. JANUARY 29. 2015
Dragons lair News
A publication of the Pickens High Journalism Class
Band students achieve state honors
(l to r): Dillon Shelton, Samuel Barber, Kari Henke, and Kayla Low.
Dillon Shelton (trombone)
and Kayla Low (flute) have ad
vanced to the semi-final round
for Governors Honors Program
consideration.
Final Round results for All-
State Band have been released
and Samuel Barber was selected
as 3rd chair baritone for the 9-10
band and Kari Henke was se
lected as first alternate for the 11-
12 band. This is a huge honor
since over 2,028 students audi
tioned on Saturday.
Band Director Michael
Oubre congratulated all the stu
dents.
Math skills
equal success
Hannah Faith Kilpatrick ad
vanced in the area of Math to the
semi-final round for Governors
Honors Program consideration.
Hannah is a band student as
well and Mr. Oubre would like to
congratulate her as well.
Beta Club members volunteer for wreath ceremony
Some of the Beta members who participated (l-r): Emma Shipley-Schmitt, Shelby Wis
dom, Hannah Bugg, Hannah Kilpatrick, Hunter Thompson and Mikayla Denny.
By Lauren Kettler
On December 13,2014, a cer
emony of the laying of wreaths
was held at the National Ceme
tery in Canton by Home Depot
and several Beta club members
showed up to volunteer.
This occasion is for the family
members of deceased veterans,
and so the families of each vet
eran would grab a wreath and
proceed to place it upon their
loved one’s grave. As one family
walked away from paying re
spects to their lost family mem
ber, another family fell in line
behind them to remember their
own; this continued for the entire
affair.
While Beta didn’t help with
planning the occurrence, they
were still motivated and inspired
to have such an amazing oppor
tunity to participate in this event.
Beta club members attending
were Hannah Kilpatrick, Shelby
Wisdom, Emma Jade Shipley-
Schmidt, Maverick Pierce, Han
nah Bugg, Keaten Odom, Hunter
Thompson, Hanna Braswell and
MiKayla Denny.
These Beta members gained
such inspiration from seeing all
of those families that had been
affected by such a tragedy. As
Hannah Kilpatrick put it, “It felt
very serious, and it was such a
neat experience to be a part of. I
wasn’t expecting a lot of people
to show up, but whoever did, it
was nice to see everyone be sup
porting of each other.” It is evi
dent that this volunteer session
was a true success; hopefully the
Beta club will continue to have
more chances to volunteer like
this in the future.
PARENTING EXPERT OFFERS ADVICE
More “Just Plain Nuts” parenting
By John Rosemonil
Copyright 2015, John K.
Rosemond
My column of a few weeks
back in which I described real-
life parenting scenarios that qual
ified the parents in question for a
diagnosis of “just plain nuts” was
a big hit. Since it ran, readers
have sent me numerous exam
ples of parents who indeed seem
to qualify as JPN and be in need,
therefore, of You Ought to be
Ashamed of Yourself Therapy.
From a big city in the Mid
west comes an example sent to
me by the director of a private
school where a kindergarten
teacher told a 5-year-old girl that
she was not allowed to sing her
favorite nursery rhyme out loud
any old time she pleased. Not a
day went by before the child’s
mother confronted said director,
demanding that permission be
granted. Seems the mother thinks
that because she is paying for her
child’s education (as opposed to
people whose kids are in public
school, who are also paying for
their children’s education, albeit
more, let us say, paradoxically)
she is entitled to direct the direc
tor of the school to create an in
dividualized set of policies for
her little precious.
This is another example of the
sort of thing that causes school
principals, directors, headmas
ters and administrators all over
the USA to tell me - always after
they have closed their office
doors - that “dealing with our
students would not be a problem
if it weren’t for their parents.”
My second example of “just
plain nuts” parenting is some
what indirect, because in this
case the parents in question are
not nuts, but someone is for sine.
On December 20 of last year,
two parents in Maryland allowed
their 10-year-old son and 6-year-
old daughter to walk home from
a local park - a one-mile walk.
The parents are believers in the
“new” free-range child move
ment (which really isn’t new at
all, as the reader will soon see).
The kids were spotted by local
parenting vigilantes who
promptly performed their civic
duty and called the police. Some
anonymous busybody also noti
fied Child Protective Services
(aka the Parenting Gestapo) who
threatened to take the children
into custody if the parents do not
submit to an intrusive investiga
tion and promise, in writing, to
not allow the children to be un
supervised for even a few min
utes while the investigation is
ongoing.
This is nuts. First, according
to legal experts I’ve consulted,
investigations of this sort are
quite possibly unconstitutional
(see the Fourth, Sixth and Four
teenth Amendments). The prob
lem is that there’s no advocacy
group waiting in the wings to
take these cases on and most par
ents so violated do not have the
money to hire attorneys. Where
is the ACLU when we need
them?
Despite the plethora of Amber
Alerts, many if not most of
which are baseless, and despite
the media’s obsession with the
issue, there’s no good evidence
that children today are in greater
“stranger danger” than were kids
60 years ago, when at age seven
I was walking a mile or more to
school, the library, stores, parks
and the barber shop. And I
wasn’t holding my older sibling’s
hand because I was an only child
at the time.
It’s just amazing that I’m still
around to tell the tale.
[Family psychologist John
Rosemond: johnrosemond.com,
parentguru. com.]
TIME IS RUNNING OUT TO ORDER YOUR GFC TREE
SEEDLINGS FOR THIS PLANTING SEASON
As cold temperatures move into Pickens County, the time to plant trees is here. Trees
should be planted in the winter while they are still dormant instead of the spring,
when their sap levels are rising. Changes can put stress on trees which can lead to
their failure to survive, moving and planting trees December through February is the
best time in Georgia and time is running out to order low-cost seedlings from the
Georgia Forestry Commission.
A lot of people are unaware that the GFC grows and stocks a wide variety of hard
wood and pine seedlings. Our selection includes lots of trees that are perfect for home
landscapes, and if neighbors or a homeowner association get together to place an
order, the savings can be even more significant.
Some of the ornamental selections offered by the GFC are river birch, dogwood,
cedar, several types of oak, maple, crepe and wax myrtles and fruit trees. As few as
ten seedlings of the same species may be ordered at a time. GFC seedling sales begin
in July each year with deliveries beginning the first week of December and ending in
February. In addition to these smaller homeowner packages, the GFC offers 3rd gen
eration pines for large scale reforestation projects spanning thousands of acres.
It’s really easy to go to our website and find everything you need. There’s a com
plete list of species and prices, along with ordering information, planting directions
and much more.
To see the seedling selection and their descriptions, visit the Georgia Forestry Com
mission website at GaTrees.ora/Reforestation. Pickens County residents may also
contact the local office of the GFC to order seedlings and get questions answered at
706-692-4801.
Open
24 hours
Every Day
www.pickensprogress.com
PHS students get Busted
for Good Behavior
By Ella Smith
The Busted for Good Behav
ior section of the Character Edu
cation Assemblies is part of the
Positive Behavioral Interven
tions and Supports (PBIS) pro
gram at Pickens High School.
The PBIS program is based on
the premise that the use of con
tinual teaching combined with
acknowledgement and feedback
of positive student behavior will
reduce unnecessary discipline
and promote productivity.
PBIS uses a multi-tiered ap
proach to improving the school
climate for students and using
data to create school-wide tar
geted and individualized inter
ventions and supports for
students. Dr. LeMieux uses the
Character Education Assemblies
to employ the PBIS plan at PHS
for the entirety of the student
body to experience as a group.
He awards small prizes to stu
dents for good behavior, speaks
about the accomplishments of
students, clubs and the overall
accomplishments of the school
through the student body.
Eight students were awarded
gift certificates to the movies for
good behavior during the recent
Character Education Assembly.
Dr. LeMieux rewarded a female
and a male from each grade for
their good behavior. The females
that received the certificates were
Autumn Scott (9), Kimmy Price
(10), Brenna Webb (11) and
Mady Hoffbauer (12). The males
that received the certificates were
Logan Cheatham (9), Brody
Buckner (10), Anthony Hill (11)
and Shannon Brooks (12).
Character Education Assembly
recognizes students
By Ella Smith
Dr. Chris LeMieux cele
brated student achievements in
the January Character Education
Assembly. Students, clubs, band
and school achievements were
recognized in front of the student
body. The Athletics section rec
ognized the accomplishments of
several sports teams at Pickens
High School, from the softball
team qualifying for the state tour
nament to the football team fin
ishing second in the region and
hosting the state playoff game.
Shannon Brooks (12) was recog
nized for being named 2014-15
Georgia AAAA Football Player
of the year.
The Arts followed the Athlet
ics, recognizing several students
along with the band and even
drama. Clay McArthur (11) was
amongst the students acknowl
edged in the Arts category for his
role in the One Act Competition
Play where he won best overall
actor in the regional competition
and the play finished second in
the region. The Pride of Pickens
Marching Band finished first in
Class 2A and placed 6th out of
17 bands overall at the Blue
Ridge Mountain Invitational.
Nineteen band students were also
acknowledged for making Dis
trict Honor Band along with
eight eligible to audition for the
State Honor Band.
The CTAE department had
clubs and several club members
recognized for placing in compe
titions.This included the Culi
nary Arts Team for placing first
at state and winning a silver
medal at national competition,
along with FFA members
Stephanie Riddle (11), Summer
Riddle (11) and Madison Mc
Clure (10) for placing first in the
Area I Ag Communications CD
at Gordon College and Career
Academy. Joe Wright was also
selected to receive the Honorary
American FFA Degree from the
National FFA Board of Directors.
Dr. LeMieux also distin
guished the academic achieve
ments within the school. Over 95
percent of the 11th grade passed
Principal Chris LeMieux
highlighted achievements
thus far this year at the as
sembly.
the 2014-15 writing test, Kyle
Watters (12) was named a Na
tional Merit Scholar Semifmalist
and an AP Distinguished Scholar,
and Andrew Haygood (12) re
ceived an academic scholarship
to attend Vanderbilt University.
Language arts teacher Todd
Geren received the 2014-15
Symetra Heroes in the Class
room Award alongside Language
arts and Journalism teacher
Steven Wilkie who received the
Georgia Classroom Scholarship
Award in December. The student
body was also acknowledged for
achieving SAT scores in 2013-14
of 1532 and ranking second in
the region, and ranking first in
the region with a graduation rate
of 85.1 for 2013-14.
Not only were various
achievements brought into the
spotlight, but new exemption and
early release plans were intro
duced. Students with completed
assignments, no more than five
unexcused tardies/ checkouts/ab
sences and a passing average
may now participate in Early Re
lease on May 21-22. Students
with an 85 or better average and
no more than three missed days
of school may exempt Final
Exams.
PHS School News
PARENT NIGHT:
Parent Night (for rising 9th grade students)
When: Thurs. Jan 29th at 6 p.m.
Location: PHS New Performing Alt Center
- Middle School Registration Day (Feb 3rd)
PCMS 10-11 in cafeteria (all students)
JMS 1-3 in media center (2 groups)
SKILLS USA NEWS:
Senior student Anna Walker placed first in the
Preschool Teacher Assistant competition on Fri
day 1/23 at the Skills USA region competition.
She will now advance to the state competition in
March.
HOSANEWS:
11 PHS HOSA students tested for a region
competition. Nine of these students placed top 10
or better in our region for PHS HOSA! Please
congratulate these students for a job well done!
Ariel Hayes 1 st in Clinical Nursing
Madison Smith 1 st in Medical Assisting
Stephen Jordan 3rd in KT: Medical Law
and Ethics
Jodie Downs 4th in Medical Spelling
Elijah Hooks 4th in Sports Medicine
Hope Atkins 5th in Sports Medicine
Anthony Napolitano 7th in Medical
Terminology
Brooke Swofford 9th in KT: Nutrition
Caileigh Jent 9th in KT: Pharmacology