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COURTESY OF CEDAR BLUEPRINTS MAGAZINE
fm% taking notes
Turning the Page
AFTER A ROUGH YEAR, CEDAR SHOALS UNITES TO IMPROVE JAGUAR PRIDE
By Najja Demming news@flagpole.com
Editor's note: Taking Notes is a new column on education from a
student perspective, written by Cedar Shoals High School senior Najja
Demming.
The 2015-2016 school year at Cedar Shoals High School
could be considered a damaging one, to say the least. From
a heavily publicized sexual assault on campus to the admin
istrative changes that followed, many people viewed the
high school through a negative lens.
“I felt angry, because the events really misrepresented
our school as a whole, and as a teacher I felt like we were
isolated,” says Caroline Manrique-Smith, a French teacher
at Cedar Shoals for six years.
Many Cedar Shoals students agree. “I understand that it
was necessary for [articles] to be published and for people
to be aware that it happened, but I just think it’s really
unfair that that’s all people focus on when they think about
Cedar,” senior Fabrienne Mack says. “A lot a great things...
happen here, but it’s like only the bad things get published.”
Despite the negative repercussions of these terrible
events, many teachers, students and community members
are creating changes they feel have been necessary for
a very long time. “I feel like the publicity was necessary
[because] things have been swept under the rug for a long
time,” says Brent Andrews, a teacher at Cedar Shoals for
16 years. “We’ve had policies in place, or a lack of policies,
that allowed students to feel like they aren’t accountable for
their own behavior.”
To address the concerns of teachers, students and
citizens of Athens, plans to ramp up Cedar’s security and
refine its behavioral policies were set in motion. “We’ve
changed our security protocols. We installed new cameras
with better quality, added better lighting in certain parts
of the building, added more security guards [and] created a
revised patrol schedule to address some of the areas of the
campus that were problematic,” Assistant Principal Aaron
Carter says. “Our campus is 55 acres. It’s like a small col
lege, so we shored up our communication with our chief of
police, and we are actually meeting with him and our secu
rity staff once a month.”
These are just a few of the structural changes and adjust
ments Cedar has made in recent months. In addition to
deterring unwelcome behavior, Cedar’s administration also
rewards and recognizes students who do the right things,
and works to create low-stress environments that are more
conducive to learning.
“We now have attendance committees formed for every
grade level, and their job is to monitor attendance, cre
ate interventions for students with attendance issues and
reward students who display positive attendance patterns.
So attendance is a big focus, because a lot of the issues
we’ve encountered over the past few years stemmed from
students not being in class,” says Carter.
Freshmen are another focus. “Our freshman class, which
has traditionally been the class with the most behavioral
infractions, is now in the Freshman Academy, to kind of
separate them and teach them appropriate social behaviors
in their transition to high school,” Carter says. “So a big
part of our admin change is really taking a look at these
Freshman Academy students and training them to behave
like high school students, so that later in their high school
careers we will not have to address and revisit expectations
as often.”
Teachers created the Cedar Advisement Team (CAT),
which continues to exchange ideas with Clarke Central High
School’s Students Engagement Team (SET). These groups
provide a platform for teachers to express their views
and collaborate with other teachers to create change. “We
started the process in January,
but it really started to take full
stride after all the events in
February, because now we felt it
was more important than ever to
try and reunite the school,” says
Amit Bharucha, a CAT member.
One of CAT’s biggest accom
plishments was the redefining
and re-establishment of the
advisement program. The new
advisement program, also known
as the “Crew” program, provides
a space for greater student input
and involvement. The program
also focuses on fostering rela
tionships between teachers and
students and keeping students
on track for graduation.
The group credits new
Principal DeAnne Varitek with
welcoming teachers’ and stu
dents’ ideas to help improve
the school, and says this new
administration has created a lot of opportunities to make
improvements they have been wanting but were not per
mitted to pursue. “I feel that this administration has made
efforts to do all of the things [the teachers] have talked
about to engage teachers and students and be open and
responsive to students’ and teachers’ needs and ideas. I feel
like that’s something that honestly terrified the previous
administration,” Andrews says.
It’s not just the teachers making changes—it’s the
students as well. The Cedar Shoals Student Government
Association has been more active than it has in years. SGA
registered over 150 students to vote in this year’s upcom
ing election, organized a students-versus-faculty charity
basketball game that raised nearly $1,200 for The Cottage,
a nonprofit for sexual assault victims, and organized a char
ity powderpuff football game that helped generate over
$1,300 in scholarship funds for members of U-Lead Athens,
a group that helps undocumented immigrants apply for
financial aid to attend college.
“The biggest thing [SGA officers] wanted to focus on this
year was boosting school spirit, because students should be
proud of their school,” SGA President Atiya Middleton says.
“One way we are changing the student culture is by giv
ing students a voice through student surveys. We are also
taking over Spirit Senate, which was started by Dr. [Mary]
Bailey in 2014, [which is] really effective at getting students
excited for school events. Overall, I feel like teachers are
showing more pride about being at Cedar, and it’s rubbing
off on the students. I really just feel like everyone is happier
to be here.” ©
Former SGA member Quinton Green, now a Georgia State University student, presents a check to Sally
Sheppard, executive director of The Cottage.
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