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State superintendent expects students back in class, teacher raises in 2022

By
Ross Williams
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Superintendent Richard Woods, left, said he’s wishing for in-person classes and teacher raises in 2022. File photo. (Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)

(GA Recorder) — Despite some large Georgia school systems implementing an online start to the semester this week, the state’s public educational system is poised for a successful and mostly in-person semester, state Superintendent Richard Woods said Friday.

“It goes without saying that the last two years have been shaped by the pandemic, our recovery is ongoing,” Woods said, “With that said, I think it’s important to recognize that this is not March 2020, which I’m very thankful of that, but we do have a lot more tools in our toolkit than when we did when we first started off almost two years ago now.”

Woods said widely available vaccines along with improved planning and infrastructure will help make in-person classes possible.

“Hopefully, this will be a very short interruption for those districts, but again, across the state, most districts are back face to face and we’re glad for that, and that’s what we’re trying to make sure,” he said.

Woods spoke at the Georgia Partnership for Education’s annual Top Ten Issues to Watch conference, held virtually this year because of the pandemic’s resurgence.

The partnership, a nonpartisan group founded by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, usually holds the event each year in Atlanta in conjunction with the publication of a report outlining the major issues facing public education as the school year resumes from winter break and lawmakers prepare to gather for a new session.

Much of Woods’ wishlist for the coming session comes down to more money for teachers.

“Definitely the completion of the teacher raise, we’re looking at $2,000, that will fulfill that,” he said. “That, I think, would be very, very well received across the state. Also making sure that the budget is fully funded, we don’t have to deal with austerity, I think that would be greatly appreciated across the board.”

Gov. Brian Kemp made a $5,000 teacher pay raise a key pledge in his 2018 campaign, and the legislature approved a $3,000 raise the following year. The difference was planned to be a part of the 2020 budget, but the COVID-19 pandemic scuttled those plans. This year, with the state treasury flush with cash and Kemp facing re-election, completing the pay raises and fully funding the state’s contribution to local school budgets seem like relatively safe bets to take priority.

Social issues

Woods also pledged to make school lessons more accessible to parents by requiring district officials to make annual reports on what third-party curriculum programs and assessments they are using and uploading those reports to a publicly available dashboard.

The role of parental involvement in school lessons has erupted as a controversy in recent months as masses of parents come to local school board meetings to protest the inclusion of critical race theory, a once-niche academic term that has become a catch-all for lessons that suggest racism exists or has historically existed in American institutions.

The GPEE’s Top Ten Issues to Watch in 2022

Equity

Unfinished instruction

Non-academic barriers

Improving school culture

Funding

Accountability

Early learning

Revamping the teaching profession

Workforce readiness

Rural transformation

Woods did not speak directly about critical race theory, but he said educators need to be transparent about what they are teaching and that parents should have a say in the classroom.

“We cannot be seen or act as educational elitists and assume that we know best without listening to our parents in our community, we have to have that buy-in and that trust on a day in day out basis,” he said. “And so I think making sure that we are transparent about what is taking place within our school is very prudent for each of our districts.”

Woods’ opponent in the June Republican primary, former Superintendent John Barge, has pledged to remove critical race theory from classrooms and teach students patriotism instead.

The winner of the GOP primary will face one of the two Democratic candidates, Cobb County school board member Jaha Howard or Gwinnett County Board of Education Chair Everton Blair.

Woods also reiterated his support for an idea Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones raised late last year, creating legislation to prevent access to obscene materials in public schools, though the scope of any planned legislation is not yet clear.

“We’ve had some discussions about what obscenity is looking like and revisiting a law that is a little bit dated,” Woods said. “Definitely, when you look at the area of electronics and things that are out there, how we can better protect our kids and just make sure that we’re focused on what needs to be taught.”

Assessments and accountability

Students did not take the Georgia Milestones standardized test in 2020, and participation rates plummeted last year after after the state board of education dropped the weight of end of course testing to .01% of a student’s final grade, a move Woods championed to lower the pressure of the high-stakes tests for students who missed out on classroom hours because of the pandemic.

This year, standardized testing will be back to normal, Woods said, but he promised to minimize the tests’ role in determining whether a student moves on to the next grade.

“The U.S. Department of Education will require state assessments this spring, so we look at testing, as going on as normal this year,” he said. “We will continue to direct local school districts with flexibility contracts to use course grades and other measures, not just the Milestones scores, when it comes to promotion and retention decisions. Our teachers, they’re frontline, they know the kids, they’ve been working with them.”

A lack of reliable test scores has severely hampered the state’s ability to grade and compare schools using its College and Career Ready Performance Index formula, said GPEE President Dana Rickman.

“We haven’t had any sort of accountability due to COVID over the past two years because, I think, for understandable reasons, we’ve suspended that,” she said. “But there are clear indications and outright statements from the Georgia Department of Education that they’re done with the CCRPI, they don’t like it. They don’t think that it does what it’s supposed to do. But our concern at the partnership is that there has not been a robust statewide discussion of what it should be replaced with.”

Woods said the state’s accountability system should be broadened to include more information to help schools grow, but specifics would have to wait, he said.

“It’s something that we’re exploring with the school improvement to help us get a better idea of what goes on,” he said. “So we’re looking at addressing accountability, and I think that as the pandemic wanes, we’ll be able to see a little bit more of what that looks like, and hopefully not have the disruption we’ve had over the past couple of years.”

Judge calls sentencing for Arbery’s killers an ‘exercise in accountability’

By
Benjamin Payne
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Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley, left, listens to Ahmaud Arbery's father Marcus Arbery's impact statement during the sentencing of Greg McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael, and a neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan in the Glynn County Courthouse, Friday, Jan. 7, 2022, in Brunswick, Ga. The three were found guilty in the February 2020 slaying of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, Pool)

The three white men who murdered unarmed Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery nearly two years ago outside Brunswick were each sentenced on Friday to life in prison — Travis McMichael and his father, Greg McMichael, without the possibility of parole, and William “Roddie” Bryan with the possibility of parole after serving at least 30 years.

Judge Timothy Walmsley issued the sentences at the Glynn County Courthouse after multiple hours of arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys.

“When I thought about this [sentencing], I thought from a lot of different angles,” Walmsley said. “And I kept coming back to the terror that must have been in the mind of the young man running through Satilla Shores.”

That was the subdivision where Arbery, 25, was running on Feb. 23, 2020, when the McMichaels and Bryan chased him in their pickup trucks for about five minutes, before Travis McMichael blasted Arbery with a shotgun.

“It is a chilling, truly disturbing scene,” Walmsley said, of video recorded by Bryan that shows the murder. “Today demonstrates that everybody is accountable to the rule of law. Taking the law into your own hands is a dangerous endeavor.”

MORE: Arbery killers get life in prison; no parole for father, son

In addition to their life sentences for murder, the McMichaels were both sentenced to 20 years for aggravated assault.

Walmsley noted mitigating factors for the relatively lighter sentence of Bryan, who was the only defendant not armed at the scene of the crime.

“But it does not change the fact that, was it not for the fact that Mr. Bryan used his vehicle in a way to impede Mr. Arbery’s course of travel, this may not have ever occurred,” Walmsley said. “Instead of closure, maybe it would be best to see today’s proceeding as an exercise in accountability.”

With sentences having been issued, the men can now appeal their convictions. Appeals must be filed within 30 days, Walmsley said.

Outside the courthouse, Arbery’s parents celebrated the sentences as they stood alongside civil rights lawyers and advocates.

“I sat in that courtroom for five weeks straight,” said mother Wanda Cooper-Jones, referring to the murder trial that ended in November. “But I knew that we would come out with a victory. I never doubted it. And I knew that today would come.”

“He’s a kid of love, because he brought people together,” said his father, Marcus Arbery. “Ahmaud, rest in peace.”

Attention now shifts to a federal trial scheduled to begin in February against the McMichaels and Bryan, who are each charged with hate crimes and attempted kidnapping of Arbery.

“What we just experienced was very important for accountability in this community,” civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt said outside the courthouse. “However, it’s so important that the federal hate crime charges move forward because there is an issue of race taking place in this country.

“And so we are looking forward to the federal federal trial, where the issue of motivation, the issue of hate that we believe was the motivating factor behind this murder, is finally addressed.”

This article appears on Now Habersham through a news partnership with GPB News

#2-ranked Indians win sixth straight in region-opening win at Loganville Christian

By
TFS Athletics
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Diego Crotta (photo by Austin Poffenberger)

The newly-ranked #2 Indians opened the second half of the season and region play with a 77-38 win Friday at Loganville Christian. TFS, appearing as the #2-ranked team in Class 1A Private in the MaxPreps state polls, moved their win streak to 6 in a row with the victory.

Anfernee Hanna led 5 Indians in double figures with 15 points. Charlie Cody had 13, Diego Crotta and Devonte Allen had 12 apiece, and Gavin Page had 10. Lincoln Hall finished with 8 points, Zakhar Valasiuk had 3, and George Ketch and KC Respress both had 2 points.

“The team played really hard on both ends of the floor tonight,” says coach Cody Coleman. “They executed well on offense and brought excellent pressure on the defensive side.”

The Indians are now 11-1 overall on the season and 1-0 in region competition. TFS returns to the court on Saturday at Prince Avenue Christian.

Meanwhile, the Indians JV boys earned another win, their third straight, in a 55-19 final. The JV team is now 4-2 overall.

The 355

By
Justin Hall
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The 355 refers to the codename of a female agent during the Revolutionary War. Granted, it does set up an inversion of the espionage genre, but the execution is formulaic and forgettable.

It stars Jessica Chastain as “Mace” Brown, a CIA officer who poses as an undercover agent in Paris with her cohort (Sebastian Sean) to try and retrieve a device that could potentially lead to another World War. You can see the premise is already devoid of originality.

Things go awry when Mace chases down a German agent (Diane Kruger) who steals the device and Mace believes she’s part of the team who invented it.

Soon, she’s calling on an old friend (Lupita Nyong’o) who serves as a computer scientist for assistance and the two begin a globe-trotting journey to find the device.

Penelope Cruz costars as an agent from Colombia as well as being a psychologist who reluctantly gets entangled in the mess. Out of all these characters, Cruz is the one that should’ve had the most development, but instead, she’s reduced to standard fare for a character of her sort.

The 355 was directed and co-written by Simon Kinberg whose had a hand in the action genre, but he concocts a script that checks all the boxes and leaves little to no room for surprise or insight. Any attempts at setting up these women into three-dimensional characters are diminished by the plot catching up to them just when they’re becoming interesting.

The 355 plays like the Bourne movies crossed with Charlie’s Angels. Just surgically remove the intelligence of the former and the sex appeal of the latter. These ladies give it their all, but they’re stuck in a script that does have good pacing from time to time, but how they all come together is a contrivance that doesn’t give any sense of authenticity.

If Kinberg were given more time to polish his script, maybe we’d have something as exciting as some of the action, but even that fails.

Grade: C

(Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, brief strong language, and suggestive material.)

Supreme Court appears wary of Biden vaccine-or-test employer mandate

By
Jacob Fischler
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On a snowy day in Washington, the U.S. Supreme Court’s six conservative members questioned the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s authority to impose an emergency vaccine rule on employers of more than 100 workers. (Ariana Figueroa/States Newsroom)

(GA Recorder) — The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared unconvinced Friday of the Biden administration’s authority to impose a vaccine-or-test mandate on private businesses, casting doubt on a key piece of the White House COVID-19 response.

The justices seemed potentially more comfortable with another Biden administration rule to fight the virus that requires certain health care workers be vaccinated against COVID-19, with no options for testing.

The court’s six conservative members during a two-hour special hearing on Friday on the workplace rule questioned the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s authority to impose an emergency vaccine rule on employers of more than 100 workers.

States have asked the court to pause the OSHA rule’s implementation, scheduled for Monday. The justices could issue a ruling as soon as this weekend.

Under the proposed Biden administration rule, those businesses either must have their entire workforce vaccinated against COVID-19 or require unvaccinated employees to test regularly and wear masks on the job.

The conservative justices characterized the emergency standard as a broader public health measure than OSHA has previously imposed and argued that Congress has had sufficient time to impose such a mandate if it wanted.

Chief Justice John Roberts said the OSHA mandate and a separate but similar one by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that requires health care workers in facilities receiving federal funding be vaccinated — which was challenged by states in another unusually long argument following the OSHA case — were part of an administration-wide program.

That approach undercut the government’s case that each agency was working within its particular authority, he said.

“As more and more agencies come into place, it’s a little hard to accept the idea that it is particularized to this thing,” Roberts told U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the administration’s chief lawyer.

“It seems to me that the government is trying to work across the waterfront and it’s just going agency by agency. This has been referred to as a workaround, and I’m wondering what it is you’re trying to work around.”

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch asked why the issue was not best answered by “the people’s representatives in the states and the halls of Congress” instead of an emergency order by OSHA.

“Congress has had a year to act on the question of vaccine mandates already,” he said.

Roberts, Gorsuch and Justice Samuel Alito said the OSHA rule was “unprecedented.”

Benjamin Flowers, the Ohio solicitor general who argued the case for a group of Republican-led states that are challenging the OSHA mandate, said on such an important policy, Congress — not an executive branch agency — should be involved, even during an emergency.

“When there’s an emergency, it’s especially important that it be a considered, thoughtful process,” he said.

The court’s three liberal members — Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — defended both the OSHA rule and the health care workers mandate.

The court could only strike down the OSHA  rule before it takes effect Monday if it would be in the public interest to do so, Breyer said.

With nearly 750,000 new cases Thursday — about 10 times the number when OSHA wrote the rule — and hospitals filled with unvaccinated people, Breyer said states would not be acting in the public interest.

“I would find it unbelievable that it would be in the public interest to suddenly stop these vaccinations,” he said.

Kagan said vaccinations have been shown to be the best way to prevent COVID-19, with masking the second-best. The federal law creating OSHA permits the agency to take necessary emergency measures to protect workers’ health.

“Why isn’t that necessary? What else should be done?” Kagan asked. “It’s obviously the policy that gears to preventing most sickness and death. And the agency has done everything but stand on its head to show quite clearly that no other policy will prevent sickness and death anywhere like this one will.”

Scott Keller, an attorney for the National Federation of Independent Business, which is challenging the mandate, said the requirement would lead workers to quit their jobs.

But waves of sick workers who cannot report to their jobs would also be disruptive, Sotomayor said.

The states challenging the workplace mandate include Ohio, Tennessee, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Arizona, New Hampshire, Florida, Georgia, Iowa and Louisiana.

Health care workers case

The court also heard arguments on the case challenging the related CMS requirement that certain health care workers be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Louisiana Solicitor General Elizabeth Murrill and Missouri Deputy Solicitor General Jesus A. Osete argued for the states challenging that mandate. Montana, Georgia, Arizona, Idaho, Iowa and New Hampshire are also part of the challenge.

Roberts appeared to possibly give more leeway to the Department of Health and Human Services, the parent agency to CMS, to impose rules on facilities that receive federal health funding.

Similar rules mandate where hand sanitizer must be or how high beds must be, Sotomayor said.

“I’m not saying that there’s not some limit there,” Roberts said. “But I don’t know why a provision addressing an infectious disease of this scope is beyond the secretary’s determination that the mandate at issue here is necessary.”

Murrill said the federal government is required to consult states on such major policies because of the major effect on health care.

“I cannot (underscore) enough the impact on states and their provider networks,” she said.

In a statement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that unvaccinated people remain at high risk of serious consequences from COVID-19 and that the policies before the court were important pieces of the government’s response.

“Unvaccinated Americans continue to face a real threat of severe illness and death — including from Omicron,” she said.

“The OSHA rule ensures that employers are protecting their employees by encouraging workers to get vaccinated and requiring unvaccinated workers to mask and test. The CMS healthcare rule protects vulnerable patients by requiring that covered healthcare providers get vaccinated. The need and the urgency for these policies is greater than ever, and we are confident in the legal authority for both policies.”

Flowers and Murrill argued remotely instead of in person because of recent positive COVID-19 tests, Reuters reported Friday.

A spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General’s office confirmed Flowers tested positive Thursday. He first tested positive late last month and has since fully recovered, but the court-required test still detected the virus Thursday, the spokesman said.

Representatives for the Louisiana Attorney General’s office did not immediately return a message seeking confirmation.

Arbery killers get life in prison; no parole for father, son

By
Associated Press
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BRUNSWICK, GA — Three white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced Friday to life in prison, with a judge denying any chance of parole for the father and son who armed themselves and initiated the deadly pursuit of the 25-year-old Black man.

Murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison under Georgia law unless prosecutors seek the death penalty, which they opted against for Arbery’s killing. For Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley, the main decision was whether to grant Greg and Travis McMichael and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, an eventual chance to earn parole.

The judge ordered both McMichaels to serve life without parole. Bryan was granted a chance of parole, but must first serve at least 30 years in prison.

Arbery’s family asked a judge to show no lenience Friday in sentencing three men.

During the sentencing hearing, Arbery’s sister recalled her brother’s humor, describing him as a positive thinker with a big personality. She told the judge her brother had dark skin “that glistened in the sunlight,” thick, curly hair and an athletic build, factors that made him a target to the men who pursued him.

“These are the qualities that made these men assume that Ahmaud was a dangerous criminal and chase them with guns drawn. To me, those qualities reflect a young man full of life and energy who looked like me and the people I loved,” Jasmine Arbery said.

Arbery’s mother asked for the maximum sentence, saying she suffered a personal, intense loss made worse by a trial where the men’s defense was that Arbery made bad choices that led to his death.

“This wasn’t a case of mistaken identity or mistaken fact. They chose to target my son because they didn’t want him in their community. They chose to treat him differently than other people who frequently visited their community,” Wanda Cooper-Jones said. “And when they couldn’t sufficiently scare or intimidate him, they killed him.”

Ahmaud Arbery’s sister Jasmine Arbery wipes a tear from her eyes while listening to her mother’s impact statement to Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley during the sentencing of Greg McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael, and a neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan in the Glynn County Courthouse, on January 7, 2022, in Brunswick, Georgia. (Photo by Stephen B. Morton-Pool/Getty Images)

Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski asked the judge for life without parole for Travis and Greg McMichael and the possibility of parole for Bryan. But she said all deserved that mandatory life sentence for showing “no empathy for the trapped and terrified Ahmaud Arbery.”

Contending the McMichaels still believed they didn’t do anything wrong, Dunikoski disclosed Friday that Greg McMichael gave Bryan’s cellphone video of the shooting to an attorney, who leaked it.

“He believed it was going to exonerate him,” the prosecutor said.

For Travis McMichael, who is 35, the possibility for parole could mean hope for release from prison in his 60s, said Robert Rubin, one of his defense attorneys. He argued that Travis McMichael opened fire only after “Mr. Arbery came at him and grabbed the gun.” But Rubin also acknowledged his client’s decisions to arm himself and chase Arbery were ”reckless” and “thoughtless.”

“They are not evidence of a soul so blackened as to deserve to spend the rest of his life in prison,” Rubin said. “This was not a planned murder. This was a fight over a gun that led to Mr. Arbery’s death.”

Greg McMichael recently turned 66, and Bryan is 52, raising the chances that they would spend the remainder of their lives in prison even if granted a chance of parole.

Greg McMichael’s lawyer, Laura Hogue, said her client has health problems and acknowledged he likely won’t ever get out of prison. But he said granting him a chance at parole would show he didn’t intend Arbery to die, never pulling his gun until his son fired his shotgun.

“Greg McMichael did not leave his home that day hoping to kill,” Hogue told the judge. “He did not view his son firing that shotgun with anything other than fear and sadness. What this jury found was this was an unintentional act.”

Bryan’s lawyer said he should get a chance at parole because he showed remorse and cooperated with police, turning over the cellphone video of the shooting to help them get to the truth.

“Mr. Bryan isn’t the one who brought a gun,” Kevin Gough said. “He was unarmed. And I think that reflects his intentions.”

The guilty verdicts against the men handed down the day before Thanksgiving prompted a victory celebration outside the Glynn County courthouse for those who saw Arbery’s death as part of a larger national reckoning on racial injustice.

All three men were also convicted of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. Maximum prison terms for those counts range from five to 20 years. The judge was likely to allow those additional penalties to be served simultaneously with the life sentences for murder.

The McMichaels grabbed guns and jumped in a pickup truck to chase the 25-year-old Arbery after spotting him running in their neighborhood outside the Georgia port city of Brunswick on Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael firing close-range shotgun blasts into Arbery as he threw punches and grabbed for the weapon.

The killing went largely unnoticed until two months later, when the graphic video was leaked online and touched off a national outcry. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police and soon arrested all three men.

Defense attorneys have said they plan to appeal the convictions. They have 30 days after sentencing to file them.

Next month, the McMichaels and Bryan face a second trial, this time in U.S. District Court on federal hate crime charges. A judge has set jury selection to begin Feb. 7. Prosecutors will argue that the three men violated Arbery’s civil rights and targeted him because he was Black.

This article appears on Now Habersham through a news partnership with GPB News

Chad Bennett named new head football coach at WCHS

By
Dean Dyer, WRWH Radio
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Chad Bennett is the new head coach for the White County Warriors football team. (wrwh.com)

White County School officials announced Friday that Chad Bennett has accepted an offer to be the new head football coach at White County High School.

White County High School Athletic Director Lloyd Collins in making the announcement said Coach Bennett has 17 years of high school coaching experience. Coach Bennett is returning to White County after being at Gainesville this past season as the offensive coordinator.  Prior to that, Bennett served as White County High School offensive coordinator and led the offense to the first, second, and fourth best-scoring offenses in school history.

“His enthusiasm and work ethic will impact all of our student-athletes at WCHS,” said Collins.

Tim Cokely announced on November 29th he was stepping down at the end of the academic year, after leading the football program for the past five years.

Coach Bennett will be introduced Friday night in between the varsity basketball games against East Forsyth.

Level Grove roadwork should be completed by end of February

By
Hadley Cottingham
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(Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)

What started as a 3-4 week sidewalk project on Level Grove Road in mid-July turned into a 6-month-long construction undertaking after the contractor working on the project found a series of unmarked water and sewer lines under the road.

This lead to Level Grove Road being closed for 4 months, finally reopening the day before Thanksgiving, but the road still wasn’t in the shape many Cornelia residents and Habersham County drivers wanted to see it in.

With much of the road unpaved and construction equipment still in the area, residents are wondering when travel on the road will return to normal.

The roadwork on Level Grove Road continues 6 months after it originally started, but it should be done by the end of February according to the Cornelia City Manager. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)

 

Cornelia City Manager Dee Anderson says that the roadwork should be completed by the end of next month, even with the cold and rainy weather Habersham has seen in the past week.

“The contractor is working as fast as he can, but material delays and weather play a factor [in completing the work] because you cannot pour concrete or asphalt in cold weather,” Anderson says. “I am confident that the project should be completed by the end of February.”

For the work to be completed, the rest of the sidewalk will need to be paved, drainage work near United Community Bank will need to be completed and the road needs to be paved.

Anderson assures the public that even with this work that still needs to be done, the road will not be closed again.

Tricia Lenora Barrett Sanders

By
Now Habersham
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Trisha Lenora Barrett Sanders, age 44, of Clarkesville, passed away on Wednesday, January 5, 2022.

Born on June 29, 1977, in Gainesville, she was a daughter of the late William Barrett and Kareen Jamison Barrett McIntyre. She was of the Christian faith and loved her family dearly.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her brother, Paxton William Barrett.

Survivors include her sons: Zackery Sanders, Alex Sanders, and Brendan Sanders, all of Buford; grandson, Kasen Sanders; stepfather, David McIntyre; brother, Gary Ramey of Habersham County; sisters, Tabitha Lane Barrett of Madison County and Brittany Barrett of Banks County; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Funeral services are scheduled for 2:00 pm on Wednesday, January 12, 2022, in the Chapel of McGahee-Griffin & Stewart with Rev. Donald Grizzle officiating. Interment will follow in Old Nacoochee Baptist Church Cemetery.

The family will receive friends from 1:00 pm until the service hour on Wednesday at the funeral home.

Those in attendance are asked to please adhere to public health and social distancing guidelines regarding COVID-19.

An online guest register is available and may be viewed at www.mcgaheegriffinandstewart.com.

McGahee-Griffin & Stewart Funeral Home of Cornelia, Georgia (706/778-8668) is in charge of arrangements.

Clarkesville to hold election in May for vacant council seat

By
Hadley Cottingham
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(Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)

The City of Clarkesville’s Post 5 seat has been left vacant ever since the sudden passing of Clarkesville Councilman Steven Ward, who died Dec. 11.

Ward had served on the Clarkesville City Council for 4 years, joining in 2017, and was re-elected to continue his service on the council during November’s municipal elections. Just weeks after his reelection, a heart attack took his life.

Clarkesville City Councilman Steven Ward passed away on Dec. 11, 2021, of natural causes.

“Steven served the city with a willing spirit and a keen financial mind,” Mayor Barrie Aycock told Now Habersham. “He will be greatly missed by all of us at the city.”

While still mourning his passing, the city council recognizes his post on the council needs to be filled. The city will hold an election Tuesday, May 24 for the Post 5 seat.

According to City Manager Keith Dickerson, qualifying for the election will begin on Monday, March 7 at 9:00 a.m. with an $18 qualifying fee. That qualifying period will end on Friday, March 11 at noon.

RELATED: Cornelia commission appoints Habersham County teacher to Ward 1 seat

Those interested in serving on the council can qualify during that period at the Habersham County Office of Elections and Voter Registration, located in the basement of the Habersham County Administration Building.

Candidates must have lived in Clarkesville for at least one year prior to running, be at least 21 years old and be registered to vote in the City of Clarkesville. For a full list of qualifications, click here.

Athens police investigating shooting that sent man to hospital

By
Staff Report
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Around midnight on Friday, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department responded to reports of a shooting on Elkview Drive in Athens, where a 28-year-old man had been shot in the leg.

According to the ACCPD’s incident report, Bernabe Hernandez, 28, was shot in the leg on the front lawn of his home. Witnesses said they saw a gray sedan flee the scene just after Hernandez was shot, and that one of the people in the vehicle was someone Hernandez knew.

Hernandez was shot in the leg while outside of his home on Elkview Drive in Athens. (Google Street View)

That person, Alexis Alba of Commerce, is now a suspect in the shooting. The ACCPD says Hernandez received a text from the Alba asking him to come outside before he was shot.

Hernandez was transported to Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, where he is expected to recover.

The investigation into Friday’s events is ongoing. Anyone with information regarding the incident is encouraged to contact Sergeant Dickson at 762-400-7070 or via email at [email protected].

Omicron is leading Georgia’s highest-ever case count of COVID-19 infection among children

By
Ellen Eldridge
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Heather Cimellaro, builds a toy house with her twins, Milo, left, and Charlie, at their home, Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022, in Auburn, Maine. Heather Cimellaro is one many parents concerned about the omicron surge and the dilemma it's posing for families of children too young to be vaccinated. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Many parents hoped end-of-year holidays and vacations would lead to a better sense of peace, if not normalcy, with respect to the ongoing pandemic.

Instead, as we head into the third year of COVID-19, Georgia is seeing its highest case counts — particularly among children — since the virus appeared. Much of that comes thanks to the omicron variant.

This latest variant, which only made its debut in Georgia about a month ago, moves much more quickly than the delta variant. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that vaccines are doing their job, said Dr. Syra Madad, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the NYC hospital system.

In New York City, where COVID cases are currently leading the nation, many patients sick enough to need hospitalization are elderly or have other health issues that put them at higher risk for severe disease or death, Madad said.

“In addition to those being hospitalized, as you look at their vaccination status, by and large a majority of those that are hospitalized are unvaccinated,” she said. “And so, again, that really just shows you the power of vaccination in our communities.”

Infections in children spiked in the last 14 days of 2021, with Rockdale and Newton counties seeing the highest case counts in the metro Atlanta area, which leads the state.

More adults get sick when community spread is high, which inevitably leads to more sick children. This is also the time of year when students return to school after winter break.

Available data show that severe illness due to COVID-19 is uncommon among children, but more pediatric patients are being admitted to hospitals.

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta recently reported more than 100 COVID patients treated at the same time — a record number.

Hospitalized children with COVID are most often unvaccinated, Madad said.

Also, attention should be paid toward the longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may have negative emotional and mental health effects, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine is now available for children as young as 5 years old, but instead of curbing community spread by vaccinating, Georgia, with its 55% vaccination rate, is experiencing a fifth wave of COVID cases.

Emory University School of Medicine Distinguished Professor Dr. Carlos del Rio told Political Rewind on Tuesday that everyone entering an emergency room is tested for COVID-19, and that this is a procedure doctors have been doing for months now.

Lately, roughly 30% of patients test positive for the disease despite seeking care for unrelated medical issues, such as treating injuries after a car crash.

That estimate predates data available Monday from the Georgia Department of Public Health. The state said an overwhelming amount of data could not be sorted quickly enough to meet the usual deadline for the weekly report.

Holiday travel and indoor gatherings will likely lead to even more testing as well as higher percent positivity, Del Rio said, adding that everyone should remain “on guard.”

That means a return to masking in public — and wearing a proper mask correctly, with a strong seal, he said, suggesting KN95 or N95 brands. Del Rio admitted many masks for sale are not NIOSH approved, and consumers must be wary.

As of Thursday, Jan. 6, the rate of positivity in Georgia has risen to 25%. The goal experts aim for is less than 5% positivity.

Back in August, when students returned to in-person classes, the delta variant pushed test positivity to 29%. At that time, Georgia had not seen more than 40,000 new COVID cases in a week since January, reported microbiologist Amber Schmidtke.

Del Rio said the best way to protect children under 5, who currently cannot get vaccinated, is to vaccinate those around them.

MORE: They were pregnant when the pandemic hit. Now these moms are eager to vaccinate their new kids

“As a grandparent of two kids under 5, it’s something we’re all concerned about,” Del Rio said. “At this time, what we need to tell parents of kids under 5 is that the best way to protect the kids is to have everybody around them vaccinated.”

Many Georgians now feel like every step forward gets pushed two steps back by new variants. Many people are burned out on all aspects of the pandemic. Many gave up wearing or never wanted to wear masks, and, now, many people are shutting out any information about coronavirus.

The experts haven’t changed their advice: All people age 5 and above should get at least one dose of an mRNA or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as soon as possible.

In facing both delta and omicron variants, experts agree that COVID vaccination saves lives.

“You’re seeing more individuals with breakthrough infections that have been fully vaccinated and boosted, and that’s completely normal because there’s so much virus working in the community,” Madad said. “But what you’re seeing is a majority of those breakthrough infections are extremely mild or asymptomatic.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts the surge of cases from the omicron variant will peak later this month.

This article appears on Now Habersham through a news partnership with GPB News.

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