School board needs protection

This is probably only of interest to folks in Georgia but consider this a public service for those planning to move to the Atlanta area anytime soon. I normally tell you about Dekalb county which seems to average a murder a day but this time it is their neighbors Clayton County.

Two years ago the Clayton county schools almost lost their accreditation but some nice talk and a few nifty PowerPoint® presentations and they managed to dodge the bullet. Well the accreditation committee came back to see what progress had been made and found that not only had no progress been made but in some regards they have gotten worse. At the root of it all is one of the most corrupt school boards known to man. Well it seems they have finally gone too far and now are getting all kinds of unwanted attention.

The stakes are high. If the schools lose their accreditation none of their graduates can qualify for the state sponsored college scholarship program called the HOPE scholarship. The deadline to show improvement is September. The school board is so corrupt and self centered that they fail to admit that they are the problem, even after the last inspector made a very public announcement of his findings last week and that is exactly what he told everybody.

So now the school board is getting extra protection to protect themselves from the gathering mob of parents with pitchforks and torches and who are warming up the buckets of tar and getting the bags of feathers ready.

The other industry hardest hit, like they don't have enough problems already is the real estate industry. Kind of hard to sell houses in an area where the schools aren't accredited.

Clayton County school board members, under verbal assault from parents, students, teachers and others, are getting some extra protection of the physical kind.

Starting Monday, all visitors to the Clayton County Schools' administrative complex in Jonesboro will have to walk through a metal detector to get inside.

Once in, they might also have to submit to another search by trained security personnel using a hand-held metal detecting device.

"The district," according to a press release, "is taking this step to ensure a safe working and meeting environment for Board members, district employees and visitors."

Schools spokesman Charles White said the beefed-up security measures are part of an ongoing effort to improve safety in school facilities — not a reaction to the controversy enveloping the district.

Now I ain't sure how putting metal detectors at the administrative complex improves security at the schools themselves.