Educate Yourself On What Is Fair

by Elder James Williams
Elder James Williams Elder James Williams

This week we are taking you on a look around our school district. A cursory glance will give you a birds-eye view of what is happening. You will see what is going on and why some folks have made the school board their mission. It becomes obvious at first glance that regardless of what they say, their actions speak much louder than their words. Several schools are never mentioned when there's talk about expansion or simply receiving additional resources. This brings to mind who's doing the voting on the distribution of resources. All you must do is consider the gerrymandering that transpired to produce the current scenario. During the redrawing of the lines, most White board members left their districts undisturbed. While at the same time, they redrew all the Black school districts. Now they will say that race had nothing to do with redrawing those districts, but you be the judge. They knew that Timmonsville was coming on board, and they did nothing to accommodate that but plan to revise the Black school districts to make room for them. But that is essentially how White privilege works. They do everything to best suit their advantage. The question becomes, why didn't they consider adding additional districts or board members since the district was expanding? We have also heard that some of the news coming out of the district office is bogus. It appears the real numbers behind the graduation rate might reflect something different than what is being advertised. Often the devil is in the details. I must say that all the positive data coming out from the district office is impressive and would be more believable if they came from somebody other than the superintendent. But, when someone chooses to be their own PR person, it just raises my suspicion level. But all that has to happen to satisfy everyone is to have the source of all this information verify it. Instead of the Florence Morning News being the promoter and chief of everything O'Malley, they could spend a little bit of time making sure that what they are printing is accurate. Because if what they are publishing is true, then O'Malley deserves commendation from all of us. Because what has happened to our schools is more than just impressive; it borders on the miraculous. In fact, all the other superintendents have failed by comparison. So, maybe it's time for us to play a game of truth or consequences. Practically every week, we hear about the consequences of the ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY is having on some students. The last thing we heard about was a student suspended from school the entire year for opening the emergency door of a school bus during a fight to try and de-escalate a fight. I know for some of you reading this, the term fight raises red flags, but we are talking about children, some of whom come from not-so-perfect home environments. We threw that in because we thought it might lessen the expectation of some of you who can't seem to realize that we are dealing with less than perfect children here. Who will, sometime, let their emotions get out of control. And those children deserve some degree of compassion from those who are dealing with them. That is the problem with Zero Tolerance Policies, which take the situation's circumstances for granted and throw the baby out with the proverbial bath water. That may seem to be the appropriate means, for dealing with students, to some, but to others that creates a system within a system. One is where you must separate the so-called problem children from the other children. The problem with that is that many good kids get caught up in that scenario without any consideration being given to the fact that they had never been in any type of trouble before. And that, my friends, is the glaring offense of such a short-sided policy. There are real academic consequences to getting sent to the alternative school that seemingly no one is considering. We would like to thank Mr. JACKSON and others who dedicate some time to making a fairer system for all students. So, we encourage each of you to get involved and find out what is really going on in your school district. Don't let a few benefits cover over a system that is becoming more unfair by the day because of people on the board who are only concerned with their own territories. If it seems West Florence is getting the lion's share of resources, parceled out by the board, don't be ridiculous; they are. That is why they keep all their seats on the board safely protected. So, my recommendation for you this week is to invest some time in getting to know your board members and how they vote. That alone might motivate some of you to vote and participate more in school issues. Unless you are willing to see your school district become one more thing dominated by conservative influence, you had better get involved. WAKE UP!
Sincerely Yours, To Educate Yourself on What’s Fair.

Elder, James W. Williams

Chairperson, Advocacy Organization, Lifelineplus