Food fights shut down school cafeteria

This isn't Snellville news, but Lilburn news...however, it relates to Gwinnett County Schools, so I decided to share my thoughts here on this topic.

Berkmar High School in Lilburn is having some challenges keeping students in the mindset for learning. Recently, the principal had to suspend all student's privilege to the cafeteria due to ongoing food fights. I think it's a great idea to shut down the cafeteria so students can learn to appreciate it. Instead of being able to use the cafeteria, the students will eat lunch in their 5th period classrooms. They'll have healthy lunches, but limited choices of what they can eat...and of course, they won't get to sit with their friends.

Unfortunately, the majority of the school population is having to pay for the issues of the few - and those who instigated this are not going to be very popular with the rest of the students. Even when I was in middle school and high school, I thought food fights were dumb.

I'm all for using peer pressure and natural consequences to teach students that disrespectful behavior won't be tolerated in our schools. We don't pay taxes so kids can be unappreciative little jerks. We pay taxes so we can have an educated population.

I only hope that parents of the 'non-trouble' kids won't complain and want this plan revoked. Hey, sorry your kid is affected by this, but please allow school administrators to enforce discipline to help all our children learn about life! Sometimes life isn't fair, and we all are harmed by the 'crimes' of others.

So that's my opinion, and here's the news story. Let me know how you feel about this.

Gwinnett School Suspends Cafeteria Lunches
WSB Atlanta

Snellville Middle School Student, 13, dies in accident

A 13 year old Snellville Middle School student, Christopher Thomas, died in a tragic accident during Spring Break when a tree fell on him. The Principal of Snellville Middle sent out an email and a letter to parents of all grades to let them know what had happened. I didn't plan to blog about it until it hit the general press. Now the story is in local news media.

The tree was apparently rotted and had termites, and from what I've heard - in the way that "boys will be boys," Christopher and a friend or relative his age were kicking the tree. I know that's what my kids would have been doing, if they had been there. That's just a thing kids like to do. I'm very sad for this family, and the child's dad is right, we must tell our kids we love them every day, you never know what could happen.

Now the insurance company is working to find out who owns the land where the tree is, and are they responsible for the upkeep of the trees? It could be owned by the homeowner's association.
They'll probably have to have surveyors and such come out and determine property lines.

One of the problems I've seen with insurance companies and trees is, if you have a tree on your property and you know it's rotten or termite ridden, and you call your insurance company - they will tell you they will not pay to have the tree removed. The insurance company will only pay if the tree comes down and crushes a house or a person. I found this out when my father called State Farm Insurance to inquire about a tree he needed removed. It seems like it would be less in the long run for the insurance company to cover dangerous tree removal, doesn't it?

Fight at South Gwinnett High School

What concerns me as much as the fight is that a high school student who posted the video to YouTube - a teenager who obviously attends South Gwinnett High School and lives in Gwinnett County, cannot spell Gwinnett correctly.

The video is titled "Chick Fight at South Gwinnet"

Do the students have any idea that Button Gwinnett was one of the three signers of the Declaration of Independence who were from Georgia? Do they know that Gwinnett County was named after him? His grave is in the Colonial Cemetery in Savannah Georgia if anyone is interested (I've visited it)



Let's learn more about Button Gwinnett