Greene County Democrat

Tag: Corey Jones

  • School board holds special meeting on school personnel

    The above scholars completed the requirements for the Structural Welding Certificate from Wallace Community College in Selma on Friday, May 10, 2024. Pictured left from right: Janice Jeames Askew, Scholar : Jeremiah Bullock, Nicholas Henley, Michael Gibson, Jr. Kalvin Jones, Jakaylon Bridgemon, Curtis Jordan, Zacary Rutledge, Welding Instructor, Dr, Corey Jones, Superintendent, Scholar John Cockrell, Jaylon Mitchell and LaTravis Jones. Also in attendance was Teresa Atkins, Greene County Career Center Director.

    The Greene County Board of Education held a special call meeting, Thursday, May 9, 2024 with a focus on school personnel. All board members were present as well as Superintendent Dr. Corey Jones, Board Attorney Hank Sanders, GCHS Principal Ms. Andrea Perry, Robert Brown Middle School Principal Ms. Tammy Anderson, Eutaw Primary Principal Dr. Brittany Harris and CSFO Ms. Marquita Lennon.

    Shortly after the official opening of the meeting, following roll call and approval of the agenda, Attorney Sanders certified an executive session for the board. President Leo Branch explained that the session was called to discuss personnel issues that may involve good name and character, legal matters that may involve strategy and safety. The Principals and CSFO were asked to remain in the session with the Board, Superintendent and Attorney. The executive session lasted approximately two hours.

    When the board resumed its open meeting, President Branch announced that no decisions were made and no actions taken in executive session.

    In previous board meetings Superintendent Jones did caution the board that budget cuts would be necessary for the next school year, especially in personnel. The ESSER funds which provided support for additional Academic Coaches would end this fiscal year.

    In the open session, the board acted on the following personnel items.

    * Approved resignation of Mr. James Gaines, Transportation Supervisor for the Greene County School System, effective June 30, 2024.

    * Approved supplemental contract for Janice Jeames-Askew to serve as Athletic Director for GCHS for 2023-2024.

    * Approved supplemental funding agreement for in school personnel.

  • Newswire : Congressional Black Caucus introduces legislation to make the police more accountable

    By Frederick H. Lowe, BlackmansStreet.Today

    House and Senate sponsors of legislation take a knee to pray for George Floyd


    The Congressional Black Caucus on Monday introduced “The Justice in Policing Act of 2020,” legislation designed to make the nation’s police more accountable to the nation’s citizens, especially its black citizens, in the wake of the brutal in police custody death of George Floyd.
    The May 25th murder Floyd by a Minneapolis cop has sparked worldwide protests about police brutality and has led to a demand in the U.S. for greater accountability by the police.
    Karen Bass, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, called the out the names of other unarmed black men and women killed by police. Bass (D., California) said the names of several victims before asking other members of the CBC to shout out the names of other black men and black women killed by police.
    Audience members screamed the names of Freddie Gray, Oscar Grant, Tamir Rice, John Crawford, Michael Brown, Walter Scott, Dontre Hamilton, Breonna Taylor, Rekia Boyd, Corey Jones, Terrence Crutcher and Botham Jean.
    U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D., California), who helped write the legislation, said, “America’s sidewalks are stained with black blood. In the wake of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s murders, we must ask ourselves: how many more times must our families and our communities be put through the trauma of an unarmed black man or a woman’s killing at the hands of police who are sworn to protect and serve them?
    “What we are witnessing is the birth of a new movement in our country with thousands coming together in every state marching to demand change that ends police brutality, holds officers accountable and calls for transparency,” Karen Bass, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said during a Washington, D.C. news conference. “For over 100 years, Black communities in America have sadly been marching against police abuse and calling the for the police to protect and serve them as they do others. Today, we unveil the Justice in Policing Act, which will establish a bold transformative vision of policing in America. Never again should the world be subjected to witnessing what we saw on the streets in Minnesota with George Floyd.”
    The bill, if passed and signed into law, it would:
    Ban chokeholds, carotid holds, and no-knock warrants at the federal level and limit the transfer of military-grade equipment to state and local law enforcement
    Establish a National Police Misconduct Registry to prevent problematic cops who are fired or leave an agency from moving to another jurisdiction without any accountability
    Amend a federal criminal statute from a “willfulness” to a “recklessness” standard to successfully identify and prosecute police misconduct
    Require state and local law enforcement agencies to report us of force data by race, gender, disability, religion and age
    Mandate the use of dashboard cameras and body cameras for federal officers and require state and local enforcement to use existing federal funds to ensure the use of police body cameras
    Prohibit federal, state and local law enforcement from racial, religious and discriminatory profiling, and mandate training on racial, religious, and discriminatory profiling for all law enforcement
    Reform qualified immunity so that individuals are not barred from recovering damages when police violate their constitutional rights
    Establish public safety innovation grants for community-based organizations to create local commissions and task forces to help communities to re-imagine and develop concrete, just and equitable public safety approaches
    Create law enforcement development and training programs to develop best practices and require the creation of law enforcement accreditation standard recommendations based on President Obama’s Taskforce on 21st Century Policing
    Improve the use of pattern and practice investigations at the federal level by granting the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division subpoena power and create a grant program for state attorneys general to develop authority to conduct independent investigations into problematic police departments
    Establish a Department of Justice task force to coordinate the investigation, prosecution and enforcement efforts of federal, states and local governments in cases related to law enforcement misconduct.
    Thirty-five members of the U.S. Senate and 166 members of the House of Representatives are sponsoring the bill.