Category Archives: Activism

The Real Truth About School Consolidation by Supt. Smith to Lowndes County Schools

Received today. -jsq
Sent: Tue, October 25, 2011 7:55:07 AM
Subject: Letter to the Staff
Friends,
Attached is a copy a document that was sent to all Lowndes County teachers and staff from Dr. Steve Smith.
Thanks,
Sam Allen
Samuel Allen, Superintendent Emeritus [Valdosta City Schools]
The letter is on the LAKE website. Here are a few excerpts:
REAL TRUTH: Continuing all of the current programs the Valdosta City School System and the Lowndes County School System have would require a millage rate of approximately 24 mills. Considering state law limits us to 21 mills, some programs will be eliminated. The decision to eliminate such programs will be recommended by the Lowndes County Superintendent, subject to final approval by the Lowndes County Board of Education. There will be winners and losers in consolidation and several current successful programs will likely have to go.
Continue reading →

Being a part of this march was, in a word, liberating —Amber Smith

Amber Smith wrote for the VSU Spectator 20 October 2011, Occupy Valdosta exceeds participant’s expectations,
I don’t consider myself an extremely political person, but I do believe that people should stand up for what they believe in. The Valdosta community has recently come together to do just that.

On Friday, I participated in the Occupy Valdosta march with over 100 students, teachers, and other members of the Valdosta community. I was excited that I got to shed my title of Spectator reporter and editor for a day and actually fully take part in an event. The turnout was, in a word, amazing. Honestly, I was trying not to get my hopes up too high for this.

The rest of her very interesting experiences and opinions are well worth a read. Here’s her conclusion: Continue reading →

George Rhynes talks to No Consolidation marchers

Received Saturday. Lots of people from Hahira. -jsq
Valdosta, Lowndes County and other concerned citizens marched from the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce building through downtown to Rev. Martin L. King Jr., Monument. There were many speeches given along with the sharing of ideas at this historic event. The marchers were lead by Valdosta Police Department and eneded in peace as we all expected in our beloved community. Peace!
-George Boston Rhynes

Here’s the video:


George Rhynes talks to No Consolidation marchers
No school consolidation,
Vote No for Consolidation March, Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2011.
Videos by George Rhynes for bostongbr on YouTube.

-jsq

At the door of the most educational meeting —Karen Noll

Received today on A most educational meeting. -jsq
Thank you, John for that accurate description of the most bizarre meeting that I have ever attended.


Karen Noll and Dean Poling at the door
As I was not invited I remained at the door. Dean Polling came to the door 10 minutes late because he’d been roaming around Rainwater conference center with a few other folks before he found out the meeting was located here. This meeting was held on the date that the CUEE had given when it would unveil its education plan. So many assumed it would be at the conference center and open to the public.(LOL)

The plan put together by the unnamed education task force a sub committee of cuee pushed Levy into having it at VSU, when VSU has clearly stated they are taking NO side!! So CUEE’s educational plan was presented before the vote has been taken to an invited group at a public institution that is staying out of the whole stinking affair. This is all to strange to not ask why and who is behind this mess?

At the end when I told Myrna Ballard about the location

Continue reading →

Count the Vote No Marchers

Some said 200, others 250, others 300, for how many marchers following this banner Friday:

Here is the entire march southbound crossing the tracks.

Here’s Video 1 of 3: Continue reading →

Occupy the Voting Booth @ Vote No for Consolidation March 22 October 2011

There was quite a bit of overlap between Marching to Occupy Valdosta and the Vote No March. Gretchen’s sign says Occupy the Voting Booth.

Here’s Part 1 of 2:


Occupy the Voting Booth @ Vote No for Consolidation March 22 October 2011 Part 1 of 2:
No school consolidation,
Vote No for Consolidation March, Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Amber Smith, intrepid subjective VSU Spectator reporter, wrote LHS Alum Against Consolidation.

Here Amber, Bobbi Anne Hancock, LHS student Nathan Wilkins, and VSU professor Karen Noll all march together. They all Marched to Occupy Valdosta. (Erin was in Atlanta, and Austin and others were out of town due to VSU’s Fall Break.) Doubtless there were others; nobody tried to take a head count of the crossover.

Here’s Part 2 of 2: Continue reading →

Greening the ghetto —Majora Carter

Child of the ghetto grows up to raise a park out of trash and to invite the rich and famous to join her to make sustainable development that works for all three of developers, community, and government sexy and profitable. A stray dog one day led her down a forgotten street to the river. She got a seed grant, leveraged it 300 times, and turned that street into a park.

She’s talking about the south Bronx in New York City, and the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, but I think in her problems and solutions you will see some similarities to the south side of Valdosta. If the Chamber was helping with this kind of thing, that would make a far more positive difference to education and real estate values for the whole community, both inside and outside Valdosta, than pushing destructive school “unification”.

It’s a TED Talk.

-jsq

PS: Owed to Scout Smith.

There’s a mousetrap in the house –Rev. Floyd Rose @ Vote No for Consolidation March 22 October 2011

Rev. Floyd Rose, president of the local Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), spoke against school consolidation yesterday at the Valdosta to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who founded SCLC.

Here’s the video:


There’s a mousetrap in the house –Rev. Floyd Rose @ Vote No for Consolidation March 22 October 2011
No school consolidation,
Vote No for Consolidation March, Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

CUEE you have done what you tried to do —Sam Allen

Sam Allen summed it up before the march:
CUEE you have done what you tried to do.
You have brought us together.
United we stand.

Here’s the video:


CUEE you have done what you tried to do —Sam Allen
No school consolidation,
Vote No for Consolidation March, Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Although maybe this isn’t exactly what CUEE wanted FVCS, SCLC, NAACP, both school boards, the Valdosta City Council, etc. united about:

What are we gonna do?
Vote!
How we gonna vote?
No!

Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Private prison operator sued for sexual abuse

Yes, it’s CCA, the same company that wants to build a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia, sued for sexual abuse at its immigration detention center in Taylor, Texas. CCA runs the ICE center in Georgia, too.

Elise Foley wrote for Huff Post yesterday, Immigrant Detainees Report Nearly 200 Instances Of Sexual Abuse

More than 180 sexual abuse complaints have been reported in immigration detention centers since 2007, according to government documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union as part of a class-action suit filed this week….

All three women in the ACLU lawsuit were held for a time in the T. Don Hutto Residiental Center in Taylor, Texas, a 512-bed detention center privately run on a government contract by private prison giant Corrections Corporation of America.

The suit targets Corrections Corporation of America along with three ICE officials, a former facility manager of the Hutto facility, and a former Hutto guard named Donald Dunn, who was charged last year with assaulting five women and has been accused of abusing more.

This is also the same CCA that runs a prison in Idaho commonly known as Gladiator School because it has twice the rate of assaults as other prisons in that state.

We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Spend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq