Wednesday already? I hope you left the house with a jacket.
High exam stress, marginally low wages, and political interference, among other factors, have conspired to drive the local school system into a near-constant hiring frenzy.
Job fairs appear to be weekly events in Forsyth, Guilford and other triad counties as officials struggle to get qualified drivers on buses, teaching assistants, special education teachers and decent substitutes.
And that doesn’t even begin to address the shortage of full-time teachers. Guilford County offers $20,000 bonuses for teachers with a documented history of raising test scores – the benchmark for everything and everyone.
It’s so bad that some school systems contract with outside companies to find warm bodies. Anyone who can fog a mirror seems to be a substitute teacher.
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So news from Iredell County earlier this week that a substitute teacher was caught in the classroom with a bag of stinky weed and a few cans of twisted tea — a drink containing 5 percent alcohol — really shouldn’t come as a surprise.
According to the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office, the incident unfolded as follows:
Third Creek Middle School staff Monday noticed a strong smell of marijuana coming from a classroom and notified the school’s resource officer.
Mind you, the weed was not smoked. It was hidden in a bag under a desk.
It didn’t take SRO long to sort that out.
The deputy asked the deputy, Thobani Viki, about the pungent smell. The answer, more or less: Ya got me, dude
A subsequent search, the sheriff’s office reported, found marijuana, “several packages of marijuana cigarette material” — most likely cigarette paper — and four cans of the aforementioned twisted tea.
Viki was charged with possession of marijuana, possession of paraphernalia, and possession of a malt beverage on school premises with bail set at $10,000.
Oh, and Viki was on probation after a DWI conviction in Alamance County. A background check was probably carried out.
Iredell County officials were quick to determine that Viki was not an employee of the Iredell-Statesville school system. Rather, he had been hired by Educational Staffing Solutions, a company that contracts with schools to provide people who are able to turn on a television when professional teachers aren’t available.
Apparently, a class arrest isn’t common. One would hope.
“This is an excellent example of why having SROs in every school is so important to the safety of our schools,” said Sheriff Darren Campbell in a press release.
While the sheriff’s comment is true, it misses a major point: if we starve schools of adequate resources and continue to lag with below-average wages in a time of chronic staff shortages, these things will happen.
Scraping the bottom of the barrel will dredge the dregs.
search for solutions
GREENSBORO — A worsening lack of affordable housing has led elected officials to consider all options available to them under the law.
With that in mind, Greensboro officials are hosting two Zoom meetings today aimed at exploring the feasibility and support for the formation of community land trusts that would take over vacant, derelict, or tax-defaulting properties in some neighborhoods with the goal of moving them into to convert affordable housing units.
As always, the devil is in the details. As always, the hottest topic will be money: who pays the bill and how much will it cost?
It is believed that each action would include a combination of tax credits, incentives and/or soft loans to qualified builders and developers.
Interested parties can register to attend the sessions today at 10:00 am and 6:00 pm through the City of Greensboro website.
Thoughts, prayer and flags
Once again we find ourselves in the insane cycle that inevitably follows a mass shooting at a school.
Six people were shot dead at a Nashville private school – three nine-year-olds and three adults.
Students from a nearby school pay their respects at a memorial for those killed Tuesday, March 28, 2023 at the entrance of Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn. Six people were killed by a gunman yesterday at the private school and church.
John Amis – Freelancer, AP FR69715
Politicians with agency offer thoughts and prayers and then do nothing. And the governors of both parties, out of respect for the victims, are ordering flags to be flown at half-staff in their states.
Unfortunately, gun violence and school shootings are topics parents cannot avoid discussing with children. Here are some tips for creating age-appropriate conversations about gunfights with kids.
The only variables are the number of victims and the location. Reliable statistics put the number of school shootings in the United States at 376 since 1999, the year 15 people died at Columbine High in Littleton, Colorado.
Rather than ordering flags to be flown half flag for a few days, perhaps it is time to lower the flag and only fly it to full glory when something substantial is done to stop the slaughter.
ssexton@wsjournal.com
336-727-7481
@scottsextonwsj
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