The following article is what I have been gathering information on for the past three weeks. It’s still in it’s rough unedited form… so please be kind 🙂 Full version to be posted tomorrow in replacing this one.
Related issues raise questions of what is being taught to students and general safety
By Elliot S. Volkman
Assistant editor
Evolkman@catoosanews.com
(706) 935-2621
A program to keep teen parents in high school has become a beacon of issue to Ring-gold residents. Head Start daycare currently located on the Ringgold Middle School (RMS) campus has become an issue to students and parents associated with Ringgold Middle School because of its current location, safety for the Early Head Start children and the students in classrooms surrounding the daycare. “Early Head Start is a federally funded pro-gram for teen mothers and their infants and toddlers,” said Catoosa County Communication Specialist Marissa Brower.
Ringgold Middle School Council member and parent of a student currently at RMS, Vicki Harris, said there are currently several issues with the daycare. “Safety of the children, moms who have to walk through the bus area and sending of mixed signals to the eighth grade students,” who over look the daycare from their classroom said Harris.
According to Ringgold Middle School Principal Lamar Brown, the situation was not an issue to parents until the parent analysis visit. “We brought in 16 parents not affiliated with the school (do not work there), putting them in groups of four and each group analyzes a different area of the school,” said Brown.
Location issues
Parents would sit in on classes; take in depth tours of the school and get a behind the scenes view on the school. “One group saw that (the location of the Head Start Program) as an issue,” said Brown. The issue was than reported to the school council and they had sug-gested bringing in Superintendent Denia Reese, where she had proposed a plan to move the location back to its original placement on the Ringgold High School (RHS) campus. (Post a copy of the plan on line)
According to Brower, the original trailers located at RHS was condemned and had to be moved. “In 2006, the Catoosa County Public Schools Operations Department and the North Georgia Family Resource Agency determined that the portable classroom that housed the program needed a major renovation due to structural concerns,” stated Brower in a release. The program was moved to RMS as a result of two vacant trailers being available with none left over at the high school. The current plan to move the Early Head Start program back to RHS is set for December of 2009.
According to one of the parents who choose to remain anonymous has said that during school council meetings the current principal of Ringgold High School has mentioned that they do not wish the program to return to their campus. In response, Ringgold High School Principal Sharon Vaughn said, “I am certainly not negative toward the Head Start program itself. I think there is a public perception that the Ringgold community has more pregnant teenagers than other places simply because we have the Head Start facility on our campus. Of course, that is not the case. I believe we just do more to meet student needs, and having the facility available is one of our strategies.”
RMS is just one of four schools that have a Head Start program in Catoosa County. Tiger Creek, West Side and Could Springs Elementary schools each have Head Start programs, according to Brower. Lottery funded preschools are located at Ringgold Primary, Battlefield Primary, Boynton, Tiger Creek, Woodstation and West Side Elementary Schools.
Safety issues
For parents of Ringgold Middle School students and members of the school council Donna Jackson, Toni Chow and Harris, the main two issues are for the well being of the children in the program and the impressionable minds at the middle school.
According Careerdepot.org a statement provided by the Head Start Program lists their program as, “Children who attend Head Start participate in a variety of educational activities. They also receive free medical and dental care, have healthy meals and snacks, and enjoy playing indoors and outdoors in a safe setting.
The Head Start program is located between the eighth graders wing, across from the track and a stones throw away from the public tennis courts. Although the tennis court and track are only open to the public after 5 p.m. the school was unaware that there were three registered sex offenders less than a two minute walk from the school, one of which is registered for child molestation. “According to Georgia Law, a sex offender cannot live within a certain distance of a school or playground, and at no times may that individual step on the school property or the playground,” said Brower on behalf of Superintendent Reese. “This is a law enforcement issue and is monitored by the Sheriff’s Department.”
The law preventing a registered offender from living 1,000 feet from a school was over-turned in 2007 and later reinstated, but allowing those individuals who had previously lived within 1,000 feet to remain there. “If a parent determines that a registered sex offender has moved into their neighborhood, the school system will provide bus transportation to ensure the student’s safety coming to school and going home,” said Brower. According to Catoosa County Sheriff Phil Summers there have been no reported issues with a registered offender repeating a crime. “We are aware of where they are and we do sporadic checks on the area and yearly check to see if they are still living there,” said Summers. “We can not tell the community where they are as a law enforcement agency due to privacy issues, but it is public record and a citizen may do so.”
“We have student resource officers on campus, which are deputies with the sheriff department,” said Brown. “We have all of our doors locked and students and teachers are advised not to open the doors for anyone.” RMS has a process where all visitors must sign in at the front office and according to Brown the Head Start has a similar process.
In January of 2008, a suspicious package found at RHS caused the two schools to have to evacuate. “When additional programs are housed on our school campus, the program is in-cluded in the GEMA approved safety plan for the school,” said Brower. “There is no addi-tional burden for the school and the program does not take resources away from the schools’ students in an emergency situation.” Reese additionally said, “When the school system can partner with state and federal agencies, at no additional cost to the local taxpayer and no additional burden to the school, to provide programs that prepare preschool children for success in school, I believe it is a good use of extra space in our facilities.”
On the other hand Brown has said that in cases like the bomb threat that the middle school would be and has been responsible for using their buses to help evacuate the chil-dren from the Head Start program to another location. “There should be other options, they shouldn’t have to deal with it if there was a tragedy,” said Jackson.
Although there is a security presence available, buses run in the general area of the pro-gram, which may cause an issue to the kids and parents of the children. “It’s just a walk away from the buses, high school seniors drive in the area and there have been cases where the child would get sick and have to be brought back to the high school with the mother during class,” said Jackson. “I applaud the mothers for going back to school; it’s just not a safe loca-tion.” According to director of the local Head Start programs, Rebecca Hunter “the area is fenced in and there is no way they (the children) could get out.”
There are other daycare programs located near the Head Start program; however, they do not take full federal funding. Gingerbread House Child Care has a waiting list and has a government food program and Schoolzin, Schoolzout Christian Learning Center has 10 per-cent vacancy and accepts child care assistance, which pays for half of the services. “It needs to be moved from where it’s at, there is space available at county offices not much further away,” said Harris. In addition, county offices located across the street have reported vacan-cies.
In August of this year, Gov. Perdue issued a state budget cut that also affected the Head Start Program. “We would like to have more centers but we are waiting for more funding,” said Hunter. “We have only had a one percent cost of living allowance increase in the last 6 years and have had cuts the past 3 years.”
Moral Issue for students and parents
Safety for the children and students are among one of the largest concerns but there is another issue, which may be contradictory of what is being taught in Catoosa County. “If we are going to teach abstinence in school, seeing the children around is counterproduc-tive,” said Chow.
The eighth grade and gifted student classes surround the daycare on the middle school, where there has been reports of distractions to teachers and students from the chil-dren in addition to young girls coming home and expressing how they want a child.
“My daughter came home one day and told me how cute they were all bundled up in their winter jackets,” said Jackson. She continued on to say how it’s hypocritical of the school system to teach the students about only abstinence and at the same time having the children of teenage mother’s right next to them. “It just says if you want a kid they can stay here for free,” said Jackson.
Stated on the Catoosa County Board of Education Web site, it is mandatory that schools teach the students about sex and AIDS. “Parents have the prime responsibility to assist their children in developing moral values,” as stated on their Web site.
Catoosa County Schools are only teaching students about abstinence; however, par-ents have also reported their students being taught condoms are ineffective in most cases. “The schools should support and supplement parents’ efforts in these areas by offering stu-dents factual information and opportunities to discuss concerns, issues and attitudes inher-ent in sexual behavior and family life, especially including traditional moral values,” as states on the board Web site. “Kids are not using condoms because they are under the im-pression they don’t work,” said Jackson. “My kids came home and told me they taught con-doms didn’t work.” Jackson then brought her children to their pediatrician so that they could fully answer any questions that her children may have.
According to the Planned Parenthood Web site, “Each year, two out of 100 women whose partners use condoms with become pregnant if they always use condoms correctly.” Statis-tics leave only a 2 percent chance of a person getting pregnant with proper use of a condom. In addition the Web site states that condoms are 70 – 100 percent effective against the con-tractive of HIV and other STDs. There is a 100 percent chance of contracting a disease with-out protection.
“With two children in high school and one in middle school, it is a huge responsibility to teach my children about sex education, abstinence and the reality of what could happen if you have sex at a young age. Our community has a teen pregnancy problem,“ said Jackson. “Sometimes laws interfere with teaching youth what they really need to know. Professionals who work with our pre-teens and teens should be permitted to educate them about sex edu-cation. Education is not encouragement, education is the empowerment to make smart choices.”
“I really do care for the kids and children,” said Chow. “But once you become a parent you’re not just a high school student, you must care for the safety of those children.
The current plan from the Catoosa County Board of Education to move the daycare from the Ringgold Middle School campus a short distance back to Ringgold High School can be found on this article online.
On the Web:
n http://www.familywatchdog.us/ Where you can see registerd sex offenders
n http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth-control/condom-10187.htm Condom information
n https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/ePolicy/policy.aspx?PC=IDBA&Sch=4030&S=4030&RevNo=1.38&C=I&Z=P Catoosa County Board of Education Sex Education policy
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