Listen Linda! Hosted by Jacquiline Cox
Music commentary
Listen Linda! Hosted by Jacquiline Cox
Beyond Traditional Education: Empowering Families and Reforming Schools with Laquita Parks and Experts
What if you could find freedom and fulfillment beyond the confines of traditional education? Join Laquita Parks, CEO and founder of PayProV Publishing, as she shares her inspiring journey from the school system to starting her own business, providing a fresh perspective on what education can truly be. You'll hear from Stephanie Conley, an educational consultant with over 22 years of experience, and Robin Pates, a former public school teacher who's now a passionate homeschooling advocate. Together, they offer a wealth of insights on teaching, homeschooling, and the challenges and triumphs within the field of education.
We also have Jacqueline Cox discussing her commitment to advocacy, especially for children with autism and those mistreated in schools. Alongside Jacqueline, Tracy Adams and Evelyn bring their unique perspectives to the table—Tracy with her extensive background in teaching special needs students and Evelyn with her fascinating transition from entrepreneurship to teaching agriculture. This episode touches on critical issues like school safety, mental health, and the disparities in resources within the special education system, highlighting the importance of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).
Finally, we emphasize the indispensable role of parental involvement and advocacy in education. Hear the compelling stories of parents like Jacqueline Cox, who tirelessly advocates for her son, and discover how strong relationships between parents, teachers, and the community can transform educational experiences. With contributions from passionate educators and parents, this episode is a heartfelt testament to the collaborative efforts required to create supportive and enriching learning environments for all children. Tune in for an episode brimming with dedication and insights from those who know education best.
Well, hello, hello, hello and welcome to. So what's your Story? I am Laquita Parks, your host, and I am so excited to be here. Today has been a day, and if you know like I know, then you understand that. So today I have a bunch of guests in the room and I am super excited because we're going to have a great discussion. There is a lot going on in the world a lot but before we hop into that, we're talking about education today. So we have parents and we have educators as guests today and we're going to talk about it. We're going to dive into some things and listen, just so you know, if you're listening, there might be some things that might be a little touchy-feely, so just prepare yourself, okay. So who am I? I am Laquita Parks, your host.
Speaker 2:I am the CEO and founder of PayProV Publishing, and PayProV is pain, progress, victory, because I believe without pain there is no progress and without progress there can be no victory. So I help people take their stories from a thought to a realization. So a little bit about me. As far as education is concerned, I worked in the school system for a long time. I used to work at Garden Hills Elementary School in Atlanta, georgia APS for seven years and there were some things that I loved about it and there were some things that I did not like about it. The one thing that I did love about it were the children. I enjoyed the children. I enjoyed watching them progress. I enjoyed seeing the light bulb come on. I enjoyed that. I enjoyed meeting the parents and the parents who were involved. I enjoyed that. What I did not enjoy was the politics. Did not enjoy the politics, and so I am an out-of-the-box type of person, an out-of-the-box thinker. And I remember my last year at Garden Hills.
Speaker 2:I used to be in the writing to read lab and if you guys have been in education for a long time, you guys remember the funding for the writing to read lab. They ended the funding so I used to work in the writing to read lab teaching children how to write and read on the computer. They ended the funding and I went into the classroom as a parapro and my last year there I worked with the guy who's an older guy, dr Egan he's passed away and I remember Dr Egan saying I don't think you should be a, you should work in, you should be a teacher. And I was like what do you mean I think I'll be a great teacher. And he said I know you will be a great teacher, but not in the classroom. And I said well, what do you mean? He said because it's too confining. And I didn't have a clue what he meant then.
Speaker 2:So I ended up leaving the school system because they paired me with the teacher who was just straight crazy and I'm just being honest, and my personality didn't match her personality. I was going through a divorce and that was too much for me, so I quit the school system and went into corporate America. And so here we are now, started my own business, I started doing mentoring and then, when I started doing mentoring and mentoring children, it hit me what he said it's too confining, and I understood what he meant because I'm able to reach children and I am not boggled down by the rules and regulations of the school systems. So I'm able to go in and I'm able to reach teachers and reach parents and reach students and make a difference in their lives, and I can do it in my own way and I've been successful at it. So I am, I'm really, really, really glad I had that opportunity and that experience.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed education, I think, in order to be a really, really glad I had that opportunity and that experience. I enjoyed education. I think in order to be a publisher and do what I do and help people take their stories from a thought to a realization, you have to have some type of knowledge with people and know how to deal with people and help them through their processes. So that's enough about me and I want to get to it. I want to introduce my guests. I want you guys to introduce yourselves. Tell who you are if you're in education, what part of education, how long you've been in education, and then we'll dive into the conversation and we're going to start with Stephanie. Hey, girl, hey.
Speaker 3:Hello everyone, it's a wonderful evening. My name is Stephanie Conley. I have been in education for 22 years. For the last, the previous 21, I was in schools, and this year I have ventured out on my own with my own educational consulting business called SL Conley Consulting, and so I'm really excited to be here, thank you so much, Stephanie.
Speaker 2:We'll get back to you. I love that. I love that and congratulations, Robin. Robin, introduce yourself.
Speaker 4:Hello everyone. My name is Robin Pates, teacher by profession, started teaching back in 2000 from California, moved here to Georgia in 2003, and quit the public school in 2013. I quit part of the reason why I worked here in Clayton County I taught third, fourth and fifth grade and one of the reasons why I quit was because I had my own children and I just felt the need to, you know, teach my own you know I'm responsible for my own first Absolutely, and so I started a homeschooling venture the little micro schools.
Speaker 4:I started that back in 2013 and both of my children ended up going to Ron Clark Academy, and so when they went to Ron Clark Academy, I then closed the center because I never like really envisioned myself homeschooling groups of kids.
Speaker 4:But people kept asking me can you homeschool my kid, can you homeschool my? I had a storefront. I probably homeschooled 20 kids over five or six years. But once both of my kids got into Ron Clark, I just started. I just kept tutoring. But I closed down the homeschooling because I had to drive to Atlanta every day take them to school. And so I still tutor to this day. I tutored two kids before I got on. With you guys, I do it virtually. I keep saying I'm not going to do it anymore, but people keep calling because the need is there.
Speaker 2:The need is there.
Speaker 4:I'm not going to do it anymore. But people keep calling because the need is there, the need is there, the need is there, the need is there. So I still educate. But now I do insurance. I started doing insurance maybe 15 years ago and I educate seniors. I do Medicare, I do Medicare, I do ACA. So I've been completely independent, working for myself. My daughter's at Spelman now she's a sophomore and my son is still in high school. Daughter's at Spelman now she's a sophomore and my son is still in high school. He is a junior. So my goal is like their first, they're my first priority and I felt like I couldn't work in the school system and still be able to focus on them.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. I love that, thank you. We'll come back to that Desiree. You're on, you're muted. You're on, you're muted. You're on mute. You, you're on, you're on mute.
Speaker 6:I'm still trying to get this together. There you go, there you go. Okay, I'm sorry, hi, I'm Desiree Williams. I'm a chef by career and um child care nanny, I guess you could say and I've been involved in the school system voluntarily for the last 20 years or so. I basically started when my son was in charter school a charter preschool, and then, as he advanced to kindergarten and first grade, I started volunteering and I've been in every school he's been in, plus other schools, and it just became very important to me to make sure that. You know, I see how the school system works, be very active, proactive, do anything I can to change things for myself as well as other parents. I've seen so many things in the school system that I felt like was just failing our kids and I just wanted to make sure I could do all I can as a parent to you know, give my input and to encourage other parents as well.
Speaker 2:So that's about it All right, awesome. Thank you so much, des Jacqueline Cox.
Speaker 7:All right, awesome. Thank you so much, des. Jacqueline Cox. Hello everybody, I am Jacqueline Cox. I am an author, a journalist, a podcaster, a researcher, but I am, most importantly, I am a parent. But I am, most importantly, I am a parent. However, I was, for a short period of time, a teacher at a school here in Chicago called Mary Crane Center, and I taught kindergarten through second grade and I did that for two years. After that, I just became more so of an advocate for my with autism and I am a huge advocate, and I'm also I've been on the DEI committee of my school district, my kids school district now 11 years.
Speaker 7:Equity and inclusion, because our community is so diverse and the children of color do not get the appropriate treatment that I feel that they should. So, being a product of foster care, I know how that can be not being treated fairly, and I've always said that my kids will never go through that. I've done homeschool as well. This past year, because of the treatment that my oldest son has been through with his last couple of schools, so I decided to take him out and put him in a cellist learning academy, and so I've done that. I did that for a year and yeah, I'm like one of the biggest advocates for any type of mistreatment I see in the school and the same in the workplace. Any type of mistreatment I see in the school and the same in the workplace. When I was with DCFS and Lutheran Social Services, I was a part of the employee rights program at my job.
Speaker 2:Jacqueline, let me pause you right there. Hold that thought. Let's get the other introductions out the way and then we'll jump back into that. Ok, pause that, pause it, don't forget. Put your finger right there. Oh, I ain't Right there, don't forget, let's go. Let's go, tracy. So let's introduce ourselves. Tell us, tracy, where you are, if you're in education. Tell us where you are in education, how long you've been in education, and then I'm seeing some really interesting conversations coming out of this today.
Speaker 5:So, tracy, Hello, excuse me Drinking this tea with cayenne pepper in it. Tracy Adams, I am a teacher by trade. I came into teaching. It wasn't my initial career that I wanted to do when I first enrolled in Morris Brown College in 1994, I wanted to be an engineer Teaching for January will be 25 years and I've taught some of everything and everywhere. My first teaching career was in Clayton, then I went to Rockdale and I went to Newton. I spent a year teaching in Vegas and one year in Muskogee County, and now I am in the Phoenix City School system. I teach special needs K through five vast of exceptionalities of children that I work with, and I actually enjoy being in the trenches because I like working with kids.
Speaker 5:I love that. That's why I've been here for so long. My business is TNA Literary Works and it's basically a virtual book display where my books, you can purchase my books and you know see different things that I offer as far as speaking and helping people to get started on their stories, because I feel like I'm kind of sort of expert now I'm also a writer for a mask and motivation magazine. I'm writing articles and collecting my articles to hopefully make a book one day. So I'm excited to be on this panel and hearing the different aspects of education coming from parents. I mean, of course, I've heard it from parents over the years being in education 25 years but I mean, like I said, said I enjoy being in the trenches and that's what I feel like as a teacher. You're in the trenches, you're on the front lines, yes, with children, with their parents and everything like that. So, okay, that's my spiel, awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2:I know you guys wanted to get into it and tell it. We're gonna get there. We're gonna get there. Thank you, um, tracy, um. And before I get to Robert Brooks I think that's him I want to say thank you guys for your service, for the volunteers, for the. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your service. It's I'm going to get to why I said that, but thank you for your service, mr Brooks, is that you Al Cattell Joy, tab 2. Can you introduce yourself, please? You're on mute, mr Brooks, are you there? Okay, I don't know if he went to sleep. Okay, we'll go to you, evelyn. Evelyn, please introduce yourself and tell us who you are and if you're in education, tell us how long you've been in education.
Speaker 1:You're on mute. There it is. Can you hear me? Yes, all right, let me step outside, hold on one second.
Speaker 1:So I'm here, I'm a tutor and I was bitten by the education bug, so I have been teaching for years now. I started out doing it for a friend, I subbed for a friend and, oh my gosh, I loved it. So I went ahead and started teaching, but I'm an agriculture teacher, agriculture, so, um. So yes, I teach agriculture, k through five, elementary school, and I absolutely love what I do. Okay, so I teach them everything from the seed all the way to table. Okay, I also teach agribusiness because I want them to know this is a trillion dollar industry. There is no culture without agriculture, okay, okay, so I'm here teaching our babies.
Speaker 1:I'm at a charter school out here in Chattahoochee Hills, and so I teach K through five. Prior to that, I was an entrepreneur. I had a home health care business for 15 years, so I traded in the seniors to the young folks, and that's what I've been doing for the past four years. I have written a book, an agriculture book, and I just finished a coloring activity book for children about gardening. So one book is already on Amazon and I think the guide will be uploaded tomorrow, actually. Yeah, Awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you guys so much for that. I appreciate that. So, listen, we are talking about education redefined from a different perspective, and so I want to talk about what's going on. Mr Brooks, are you there? Did you introduce yourself? Did you come back? Can you hear us now? Hear us now? Okay, we did not, so we want to.
Speaker 2:I want to talk about, first of all, let's talk about safety. With the recent events, the shooting that happened here in Georgia, how safe do you guys feel? You know, I know that, robin, I know that your children are still in school. So how safe are the children feeling, even though, jacqueline, I know you're in Illinois and Tracy, you're in Alabama? How safe? You know what do you guys think? How safe do your children feel?
Speaker 2:Did you guys sit down and have the conversation? Because, even though you're educated, you're also parents. So tell me, what was that conversation like in your household? And then I want to know was there a conversation in the classroom? Because there's been some threats here. So what's the conversation? Because you guys are on the inside, I'm on the outside, I don't have school age children anymore, so I get the information from friends who are educators and from the news media, which you can't always rely on. So so I want to start, robin, let's start with you. And what was that conversation like? And you're here in Clayton County, so you were here in Georgia. What's that? What was that conversation like? And you're here in Clayton County, so you, you were here in Georgia. What's that? What was that conversation like with your children?
Speaker 4:So it's interesting you brought that question up today because my son ended up staying home today. Um, he is. He's currently goes to North Atlanta in APS, so I got a condo in a in Atlanta because he went to boarding school. He's always gone to boarding school after he left Ron Clark and he didn't like the boarding school experience. So this is his first public school experience this year as a junior, and so we talked about the shooting.
Speaker 4:A message was sent out by APS yesterday to the parents late last night stating that there have been some threats and that they were going to have. You know, there's going to be certain safety measures. They do have. They don't have a clear book bag at his school, but they do have the metal detectors when they walk in. And so we talked about it. And today, when he got on the bus cause he's in Atlanta, he's like mom, he texts me, he's like nobody's on the bus today and I'm like what do you mean? And he's like there's only like five kids on the bus and everyone's scared. That's what he said. He's like everyone's scared.
Speaker 4:He did go to school and he ended up Ubering back home. That was our experience. So we talked about it. You know I, you know, I try to go the faith way God and not living in fear. But and I don't know the full picture, cause he didn't stay at school for very long, but we did talk about this situation and he happens to have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, so he's not going to school tomorrow, while the school can kind of figure it out. But I know for him it's eyeopening for him because he's never been to public school and then now this is his first experience, right, and so even if he's not scared, it's just the fact that when he did get to the school he said people were crying. I don't know how serious the threats were. We just got a general message from the school that stated because of threats, we're going to heighten the security.
Speaker 4:And so you know it's interesting and we've talked about it and we've talked about, you know, doors being locked and like when you see something, how would you handle the situation and not running and hiding, and it's unfortunate that we've had to have those conversations, Wow.
Speaker 2:You know and I'm going to ask you, jacqueline, I know you're in Illinois but you have two young boys in school. But I want to ask a question too. Jacqueline, I'm going to let you answer, but I want to ask the question. My tongue's tied, Do you guys feel like? Because you said there was basically a blanket statement issued from the tied. Do you guys feel like, because you said there was a basically a blanket statement issued from the school? Do you guys feel like and I saw some, I'm in the same group in the Clayton County Moms and Dads and people were posting the letters and it really wasn't a lot of information.
Speaker 2:It seemed like it was a duplicated letter and the school names were just changed. So do you guys feel like and answer this after, jacqueline but do you guys feel like there is that there is enough communication from the school or not enough communication? So, jacqueline, how, what kind of conversations do you have with your boys? I know Jaden was homeschooled for a while and then you know he's back in school, but he's in high school now.
Speaker 7:right, jaden is in eighth grade and he's in middle school last year of middle school, right, okay, so how was that conversation? Third grade, so marvis is in third grade, jayden is in eighth grade. Um, the conversations that we have, you know, god bless me with a husband, a military husband. So you know he's always you know, from birth until now always made sure that he's equipped our family with strategies and exit strategies. And before you know, when we do the open house in the beginning of the school year, he walks around the whole school. He needs to see every exit, how they prepare, what's their plan, what's their strategies, anything dealing with, like you know, students bringing firearms or open a firearm in the school, anything like that. So he probes the school, he probes with the security to make sure that everything is okay.
Speaker 7:But we still have those conversations at home where, if something were to happen, do we still allow our kids to go? I know that here in Illinois I can't speak for everybody, but your kids get five mental health days that are automatically excused absences for their mental health. So we make sure that we reserve them as much as we can. But if something were to come up like that, we're definitely taking a day because we are faith-based beyond right, like we are the ones that we all our kids we pray before we leave out, we pray in the car, they say their scriptures before they go to school. But I think that as parents, it is our duty to protect our kids and not just feel like, oh you know, I'm going to send them anyway because I just need a break. No, if something happens, ours are staying at home.
Speaker 7:You know, I think the best way to safeguard our children is to make sure that they are protected and I don't want to be in a situation where, if something was to happen, I can't protect my kids.
Speaker 7:Now, mind you, jaden is allowed to bring his phone to school they do not confiscate the phones just in case it was anything were to happen. But it still takes time for us to get. We can't zoom past stoplights and stop signs and it takes time for us to get from our house to the school, and I just want to make sure that they are never in that situation. But if they are in that situation, my husband has definitely went over every safety tactic with the school, with our kids, and we also make sure that they know to text us, to call us, if my third grader feels like he's in any type of danger. He knows he has a watch. Hit that watch button, call mom, call dad on his watch. You know those types of things that we invest in because we don't want to be in a situation where we can't help our kids.
Speaker 2:I like you. I like that you said those are types of things that we invest in. I like that you said that. I like that you said that. So, tracy, what about you? I like that you said that. I like that you said that. So, tracy, what about you? I know you are an educator and a parent, and so you have two girls and they're in different schools, and so how?
Speaker 5:do you navigate that and what's the conversation like in your household? Well, after everything happened up there, I forgot the name of the school, but anyway it was in Winder, I know. And my oldest daughter and I had a conversation on the way to school afterwards and you know she was she didn't seem like she was scared but you know, just very concerned and I told her, you know, if you see anything funny, hear anything funny, smell anything funny, I said you go to a custodian room, lock yourself in there, go to a bathroom, go to the cafeteria. You know, if you got a friend with you, drag them by the collar. You know, save your friend, get somewhere where you're safe. And I say you stay there until you hear from me and her school. You know they're allowed with their phones as well.
Speaker 5:You know I love what Miss Jackie said about her husband. You know, just basically scoping the whole school and I wish we all had that. You know, my little one, maya, is in the fourth grade and I've taught her the same thing. You know, just run and hide is all I can say, is all I can say. You know, get somewhere where you can close the door and cover yourself. You know, until you hear, until you hear from me. Don't, don't move, don't make a sound until you hear from me. And I just think one of the things my oldest girl said and I'm going to let someone, I'm going to be quiet so someone else can share.
Speaker 5:But one thing my oldest girl said and she said Mama, it's a shame that we have to go through this, and this is her first year in high school. She said it's a shame that we have to go to school like this and be worried about someone coming into the school building, you know, and shooting it up like that. I know things happen everywhere and it can happen at any time. But you guys correct me if I'm wrong we don't see a lot of it at schools where there's a lot of people that look like us. Correct me if I'm wrong. I mean I haven't, you know, and not saying that I can let my guard down. I'm like, oh okay, I'm saying because it's not going to happen at a black school, it could happen anywhere, but I'm just saying that you know I, in my 25 years of being in education, I haven't seen it so escalated it's a lot.
Speaker 2:It's there, there are. Thank you, tracy, there is, it's. It's just evil. There's so much evil and hatred in the world and and, and, and. To me it doesn't have a color. It's just evil, it's just hatred and it's sad.
Speaker 2:And you're right, we um your baby's right, because when I was in school, which wasn't that long ago, um didn't have to go through, didn't? I don't remember ever being afraid of somebody coming in and shooting up the school. Didn't. Didn't remember that. Um, you know the most. The most that we thought about was you know you, you know what boy like you and what you know. That's, that's the, that's the most we thought about. We didn't think about any of that. But now the tides have changed and we have to. It's not business as usual anymore and you're right, you can never let your guard down. So thank you guys. Evelyn, I wanna ask you so you came from you're teaching younger, the younger ones now.
Speaker 2:Were there conversations did you have in your class? And thank you so much for your energy. I love that energy and you see that when you love what you do, when people love what they do and thank you, tracy, for being there, staying there in the trenches. When you love what you do, it shows and it shows to the other people.
Speaker 2:Desiree and I do swimming, do pool in the morning, water exercise in the morning and we were just talking about yesterday with Stephanie we were y'all, we go to the pool. So if anybody ever in Atlanta y'all want to go to the pool, 55 minutes in the pool with me will change your life. Okay, I'm right, that's my little caveat, but we were talking about the. That's my 55 for 55 plug y'all. Okay, but we were talking about how, when you love what you do, you see a difference. The outcome is different. Even when the students are kind of hard to manage, if you love what you do and you understand that they are students and they are children and they're coming from different places, you love what you do. You can make a difference in their lives. So, evelyn, what was the conversation like in your classroom with your students, especially seeing as you have the younger ones?
Speaker 1:students, especially seeing as you have the younger ones. Yes, so I'm a mother too, so I have a son that's a senior in high school. Now we are in Douglas County, so we also in Douglas County had the same. They heard they will report that somebody was going to do the same thing at Douglas County School. So my son already told me prior he doesn't feel safe at his school because kids from Westlake come to his school for lunch. You know, so that lets me know, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:And that lets me know, though that Hello, no. Know though that hello, no. Um, that lets me know, as a parent, that those doors are not locked, they are. The teachers are not watching, um, the cafeteria workers or what I mean? I'm a teacher too. We have duties where we share cafeteria time and no one sees that these kids do not go to this school. I have a problem with that as a parent and as a teacher. Why are we can't let people in and out of the school?
Speaker 1:Where I teach, we have three armed security and it's private. You know they, the school hired them, our board did so. We have on three people. They constantly walk our campus. So here where I work, I do feel safe. I can honestly say that I am also a gun owner. I am licensed, I shoot, I'll go to the range. So my son knows safety measures. He knows about guns because we are, my husband and I, we are gun owners. Jeffrey knows if something happens and it's a time at that school where you feel threatened or you feel scared, let somebody know. At that school you got to go. You call me and Jeff, you let us know and you get in your car. You head home. If not, you get somewhere safe, don't move. So you know it's a safe. You know you either see officers or you see me or your daddy walk through that door. So our son knows to stay safe. Um, but it's not a guarantee. I'm sure those families told their babies love you.
Speaker 3:See you later.
Speaker 1:That's what we do, that's what we tell them, and those parents thought that those two babies were going to come back home.
Speaker 1:But we don't know I do plead the blood of Jesus over my entire family every single day, a day, and I have to. I have to live on faith, that I pray and I know that my God is going, that our God is going to take care of New Manchester High School, cover the whole school, watch over the parents, the students, the teachers, all of it, and my husband and I, we don't stress about it. I think nothing none of us can do. You know, I mean, let's wipe out all these AKs and all of this unnecessary. You know why is it that we need those type of? You know why do we need that type of weapon? Right, right, you know you're not going to war.
Speaker 2:Right, it's a. You know you're not going to war. Right, it's a. You know it's amazing. We, we, it's especially those who have young men. You teach, especially black boys. You teach them what to do when you get, you know, when you get stopped by the police. And so now we're, we're trying, we're, we're training our children, um, how to stay safe doing active shooter. So they're doing active shooter drills. So, um, thank you so much, evelyn.
Speaker 2:I want to ask you, desiree and I'm going to get to you Stephanie, because I have a whole spool of stuff. Stephanie is a principal and I want to get to you about some other things. But, desiree, you are, so you were military and so your son is now military. So when you hear military, so when you hear, when you see things like an active shooter in a school, and you know we don't know until after the fact that it's a child, you know, and it's usually just like that, it's usually children. So, from a military standpoint, and you have your son who is new to the military, what's your stance on it? How do you feel about that, especially having volunteered in the school system for 20 years? What do you think? What's your stance on it?
Speaker 6:It's really scary. I mean, I'm sure it is for everybody, but I think about that all the time because actually, twice in two different schools during my 20 years as a parent volunteer, we've had incidents. Uh, matter of fact, another one just occurred. It was a bomb the day after this current school shooting. And, um, where was the winder, county, winder? Uh, my niece, she's seven and her eight, seven or eight, but anyway, she, they, someone reported a bomb threat at her school and this was the very next day. So of course we were all like you know what in the world.
Speaker 6:And then we had an active shooter in the area of my son's school. He went to a private school in Noonan and they had an active shooter where the area of my son's school. He went to a private school in Noonan and when they had an active shooter, when they had to lock down everything, I just happened to be doing child care at the school after school care and all I had was someone just come in my room and say, hey, I'm going to have to lock you in here. And we had already had a meeting about what that means when they say we're going to lock you in here. So I just nodded my head. You know, the kids wasn't aware of anything and we didn't want them to panic. He just locked me in and they called me on the phone to explain a little bit about what was going on. And it was just some random guy had robbed a bank down the street and he was running through the woods of the, you know, nearby businesses, including the school. So they had to lock down. And then we had another incident a couple of years back from something else.
Speaker 6:But you know, this thing is just, it's just too much. I mean, it's been going on for so long. It's like I just I don't know, I don't. I feel, you know, we feel safe sometimes, but just depending on the circumstances, it's like, you know, are we letting our guard down when we shouldn't? I mean, you know you don't want to panic, but you know my son, he's um, he's actually a weapons specialist in the military.
Speaker 6:That's his job. So sometimes you know I'll call him and then you know he won't answer and then he'll call me a couple of days later. I'm like sorry, I was at work, you know, whatever, whatever, but I know his job, you know, entails keeping watch of an entire ship of about 5,000 people, you know, and if he's not on his job doing what he's supposed to do, somebody can, you know, easily infiltrate, and you know he's literally protecting a boat, a ship of about 5,000 people, like a small city, you know. So he has to be on his P's and Q's and that makes me scared because you know he's like directly in charge of stuff like that and I just, I don't know, I get so nervous. I know what he signed up for, but you know, you still can't help to feel, you know, scared sometimes you know Wow you know, scared sometimes you know,
Speaker 6:Wow, yeah, it's just. It's crazy because I mean school is just not the same anymore. I mean we went from carrying clear backpacks Now we're walking through security systems like we're at the airport, you know, and it's just gotten more and more and more from there. I mean, you know, and it's just gotten more and more and more from there. I mean a bomb threat back in the day a lot of times was, you know, set up on purpose like a fire drill, just to prepare us to know what to do if we get one. But now pretty much anything that comes through we have to assume it's real. You know what I mean. So, yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow. And you know what you said, something that I want to segue to Stephanie. You said you know it's his job, it's your son's job, to watch. So are we doing enough? You know, in the education system, are we doing enough? So, stephanie, I'm going to go to you. You were, excuse me, a teacher first for several years and then you transitioned to principal. A teacher first for several years and then you transitioned to principal. So you kind of deal more with policies and all those things. So do you think the system is broken?
Speaker 3:So I won't say that the system is broken, but there's definite areas of improvement that we can have within the system. I think one of the things that is very important and we just don't have enough of them in our schools are behavior specialists, as well as counselors, that can focus in on the mental health and well-being of our children. One of the things that was stated over and over again was that this child was bullied, that the school did nothing about it and that this was how the child retaliated, and so we have to not only focus on the children that are getting bullied, but we also have to focus on the bully and understand why they are doing that. So one of the areas that we can have a major improvement is really focusing in on those areas in which we can identify and pinpoint some of the mental health stressors that our students are going through, and that's one of the areas in which we are lacking time time.
Speaker 3:There are a lot of things that we can put in place, but we can never get into the mindset of what children are thinking when they commit serious acts such as this. We never know what their steps are. You know, one of the things they said for this young man is that he had his weapon in his bag. You know we have seen situations in which for this young man is that he had his weapon in his bag. You know we have seen situations in which they stashed it and they open up the side door and go out and get it. So you never know like what that, what actually is going to take place in order to ensure that it never happens again.
Speaker 3:We can try to put things in place to prevent it happens again. We can try to put things in place to prevent it, but we unfortunately, the times that we are in and we saw this especially as we came back from the pandemic that our children were in such high need of supports that our school systems weren't able to handle that, that our school systems weren't able to handle that and they didn't have people in place in order to handle it. And when we're talking about children being on wait lists, outside of that, we have children that are on wait lists to see therapists because there are not enough training therapists in order to handle the situation. So there are a lot of areas in which we need to see some improvement or provide some additional supports in order to support our babies.
Speaker 2:I like that. You said that because I remember when I worked in the school system, I worked with the program for exceptional children and this was way many years before the pandemic. I worked in a school in Buckhead, so the resources were different, even though it was APS. The resources were different because the parents had the money and if they wanted something done, they paid for it. They had the resources in place. They had the speech teachers and they identified them quickly and they had.
Speaker 2:You know, if they needed therapy, my, my son was was special needs. But because of medical and they had it set up where at first they was like, okay, well, you have to take him out of class and give him his treatment, and they were like, no, you're a teacher, he's a student, he needs to be treated as if you were not here. But because I needed to make sure that he got his medication, I had to really come out of a box and like, okay, listen, he needs to have his medicine. It doesn't matter to me that you don't feel comfortable. Well, he has to have what he needs and it isn't as a parent, it isn't my fault that you don't have the resources here. You got to make do because it's a requirement, it's what he needs for his life, and so that was a fight at that point and we got it straight. We got it real straight. But it was a fight and you have then, where there was a small group, as compared to now, especially since the pandemic, everybody is looking for IEP. And I want to have Tracy to speak on that, because Tracy and I had a conversation where there are parents who some of the kids don't need an IEP and let's just be honest, some of the kids need a B-E-L-T.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying and hey, I'm not advocating beating the kids. A, you know a B-E-L-T. You know what I'm saying, that's. And hey, I'm not advocating beating the kids, but you know the Bible says spell not the rod and spoil the child. So it's, you know, discipline, they need discipline and so, tracy, speak to that.
Speaker 2:You know what's going on there with the disconnect and there is, it is a huge, huge emphasis on mental health, to the point where they've even put resources in place when a police officer gets a call and it's a mental health situation. They have started at least here in Georgia, they started to put those resources in place. So how they better handle it, because our people who have the mental illnesses are ended up dead in the street at the hands of the police because they don't, they don't know that this person is having a mental issue. But then there are those who, who are not, and they're they're actually, you know, kind of trying to push the system. So, tracy, speak to that and answer this question have you seen more of that since the pandemic or prior to?
Speaker 5:Seen more of parents wanting.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 5:Well, I can say that I've seen that more since I've been in Alabama. I've never seen the likes of parents. I talked to one yesterday and they'll just call in hey, I want my child to have an IEP. And I'm like who are they talking to? Where are they getting their information from? Where they feel like you know they could just call the school, call the special ed teacher, and say hey, I want my child to have an IEP.
Speaker 5:Without going through any of the evaluations, without trying to see if the child has received direct instruction in the classroom, you automatically want an IEP. And then you get to their senior year and you realize that your child is going to get a special ed diploma, not a regular diploma like everybody else. And now we want to pitch a fit. Oh, they didn't tell me. Oh, I didn't know. No, you were, I'm sorry, hell bent on your child having an IEP, instead of doing what needs to be done to help the child at home. My child this is what one of the parents said my child is just struggling, she's having a hard time, so you wanna slap an IEP on her that's gonna go with her for the rest of her academic career. I mean, you know, like today, you know my teacher, mighty's team, we call her Mighty Mouse, maya's teacher. She did not do well on her social studies quiz and she said well, you know, I'm going to allow her to retake it. So that's like me as a parent. Well, my child need an IEP because she didn't pass the social studies test.
Speaker 5:I know it sounds ridiculous, but this is what I hear on the regular and my special ed caseload is at right now it's at 37. I'm serving 37 students and my segments are 30 minutes. So you're rounding up your group of kids and you're trying to get them settled. By the time you do that, you barely have 15 minutes to provide the academic services that they need and you study that. Parents coming in I want an IEP. I want an IEP and I want to tell them I can't, you know, because of the politics. I want to tell them so bad, sure, you can have an IEP, but just know that your child is only going to get about 15 to 20 minutes of academic services, because I got 38 children on my caseload and that's the low number. Last year I had 47. And the cap that special ed teachers are supposed to have on their caseload is 20.
Speaker 5:So, I'm at double, so I don't. And they want to talk about compliance and oh, we need to be in compliance and make sure everybody has an IEP and if the eligibility is current and everything like that, we want to be in compliance. And I go to work comfortable every day because they were first out of line when they put almost 50 kids on my caseload. So they can't come to me and say anything Well, adams, you're out of compliance. No, you're out of compliance because I'm nearly 30 children over what the state of Alabama says I'm supposed to have. So let's fix that and then we can come together and fix the other things that you say that I'm out of compliance on.
Speaker 2:And so here we have, it's a double-edged sword, because you're over the limit that you can sufficiently serve a child, and so they're not getting the service that they need and you're overworked, and so and from that standpoint, stephanie, it's like, okay, is the system broken? Well, there are a lot of things that need to be done, and so I wanna go to Jacqueline, because I know I remember a couple of years back, jacqueline, you were going through the whole gamut of the IEP stuff and it wasn't anything pretty and you were a parent who, who fought. And so you have, you have the parents, tracy, who are, you know, hey, my kid need an IEP, because they definitely talking to somebody, because somebody said, well, just call them and tell them you need an IEP.
Speaker 5:Exactly, exactly right. And I'm going to say this, and, jackie, you can go ahead. I'm going to say this I have three students on my caseload who do not have any academic goals. They have behavior and social emotional goals and social emotional goals. I'm sorry, but I am not trained or certified in behavior specialists or social or emotional. Wow, Right back to what you said, stephanie. Brilliant kids, brilliant One of them. I told him today, boy, you could be a history teacher. He, letter for letter, letter for letter, detailed, told us all about Pearl Harbor, hiroshima, the Arizona ship being attacked. He told us from timeline to timeline. But because he had behavior, if he doesn't get what he wants, he'll go off, run out of the classroom and slam the door, and I'm supposed to service that.
Speaker 2:So right quick, jacqueline. We'll get you right quick. Stephanie, if you can, for those who don't know what an IEP is, can you go ahead and ask Kevin just asked that. Evelyn, if you could mute yourself please I know you're driving If you can quickly tell us what is an IEP for those who don't know?
Speaker 3:So an IEP is an individualized education plan for students, and it can either be academic or behavioral in nature, and so what it does is it outlines goals for students that they're supposed to, we're supposed to work and help them to reach by providing accommodations for them in order to help them reach it.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. I remember that I used to work for the work in the program for exceptional children and and they were there there were specific guidelines and the schools they came out and every year there were checks and you had to make sure that those checks and balances lined up. You had to make sure if Johnny was in the room, you had to make sure that Johnny had everything that was required by his IEP. If Laquita was there, laquita's IEP looked different. So you had to make sure that Laquita's IEP and Laquita could be behavior. Johnny could be educational and everybody's in the program for exceptional children and everybody got something else. And if they got five minutes of butterfly time, then they needed to have five minutes of butterfly time. And if it said your cap, your max, is six in this classroom, you could not have seven, could not have seven. That's when I was in the school system back in back some 20 years ago.
Speaker 3:So I just want to say real quick if it's done right, you could. You could ultimately see several instructors in a classroom in order to help support children. What we know right now is that we are severely lacking teachers. We're severely lacking teachers in specialized areas, such as special special education and career technical and agricultural areas, and so if we were ideally able to fill all the positions, we would see people like Tracy have her 20 or less.
Speaker 2:Could people like Tracy have her 20 or less, and we would see our students receiving more services than a 15, 20, 30 minutes that they. That is only possible right now, and you can see the difference being truly made. So, jacqueline, you, you have, you have two sons, and you've gone through the and I'm going to say and you correct me if I'm wrong, if I'm safe in saying the nightmare of it all.
Speaker 7:Absolutely With Jaden. He did not have a IEP. They wanted to give him an IEP. But as a first time parent with Jaden, I was very, very taken back. Jaden in kindergarten was misappropriately touched by a Caucasian boy in his class and when they found out at the school he was in kindergarten at the time in a bathroom with a second grader. And when they found out at the time they oh, that's just what little boys do and you know tried to sweep it under the rug. And then Jayden started to have behavioral issues after that and they said, oh, we think he needs an IEP. No, he doesn't need an IEP. So I went to bed about that. But after a while I did start seeing some behavioral issues at home and I took him to therapy and I spoke with my husband about it and we came up with the 504 plan. You know, action and put them in therapy, and we went that route.
Speaker 7:So explain what's a 504 plan for those who don't know A 504 plan is basically Jaden is diagnosed with ADHD and he was dyslexic in the beginning and I was one of those parents, those young parents, that ain't nothing wrong with my baby, y'all got it wrong. I was very in denial about him and receiving care because, you know, growing up in a, you know in in our culture, uh, we shun upon things like therapy and if first time somebody say anything our kids need anything is, oh, my baby ain't crazy because you know, that's that's what we were allowed to think, oh, you're just not teaching them right or maybe it's something I could do at home. But then when I started to see certain signs and do and, and parents with the therapeutic behavior program and just started to do my research on it and go to school for it, and I started to really realize that and start taking some of those things that I learned at work and implement at home with my child, and then I noticed some things and say, ok, yes, so we moved and we did the 504 plan and it's kind of parallel to the IEP but it's not as drastic, but it's still forced my child to have accommodations where, if he may need a five or 10 minute break, he didn't answer he can't pay attention those types of things. Then they have systems in place that gives him those accommodations that will help him to be able to do better academically. And he has excelled. He's been an honors student since first grade. Dyslexic program out the window. He's a best-selling author, so that should tell you that he is excelling exceptionally well in that area.
Speaker 7:Now, as far as um, my youngest, he's eight years old, his name is Marvis. He does have an IEP. Um, I went into it more optimistic, um, because um once he was, uh, we took him through um Once he was. We took him through private therapy and we actually paid for the neuropsychopath, psycho, whatever it's called, the test that, for lack of better words, you got to excuse me, I need more food in my life tonight but the neural testing, that that they do, and it's a 12 week test that they do every Saturday, where we take our child for four hours a day and have him actually do cognitive, do social, emotional, do all those different tests to see exactly where he is as far as his, his learning capability, his behavioral and, although he is high on the spectrum, genius academically His IQ was through the roof academically but he does have that issue that it takes. His brain works different. How he analyzes things and how he learns things is a lot different from an average person.
Speaker 7:And so for that reason he has the IEP and it was a struggle to get him that IEP with the school district, even though the school that he goes to is a public school. They did not want to provide him with the services, but the services are in the district and they are in the class. And that's where me and you, laquita, we spoke pretty much a lot Because you know they thought they had them one, that's all I'm gonna say. But I, they did not know that I was a part of the DEI committee. Um, they knew me as Jacqueline Cox, but my name, my maiden name, was first used when I joined the DEI committee and I never changed that name over. So they did not know that Jacqueline Smith was actually Jacqueline Cox. And so when they learned about it, that's when I started to see a better treatment towards me, towards my kids, you know.
Speaker 7:But you know, as far as having that struggle with the school district, it was very hard, not necessarily with the teachers in the school or the principal, because they were great, but having to fight with the school district to provide those services to my child. It should not have happened. But that is more so on the level of racial discrimination that we have in our community here where we live. So that was the difference. But I absolutely love my son's IEP program. It helps him a lot. He has actually has a one on one person that sits with him throughout the day. He has the, his counselor, who sits down the hall where if he's having an issue he could go talk. He has a plan put in place where they give specific goals. They meet with us four times a year and every semester to make sure that he's reaching those goals.
Speaker 7:They do the best that they can to keep me informed.
Speaker 7:We are one team and I will tell the parents right now can to keep me informed.
Speaker 7:We are one team and I will tell the parents right now. If you are, even if you don't feel like you don't like the teachers or you don't, you still, for the sake of your child, do the best you can do to at least be cordial with the team. Because if you are not working on the team, with the team and you do not have a camaraderie with your kids, teachers, with the principal, with the counselors, with the spec teachers, the SP ed teachers or those type of things. Your child will not thrive because they will go at the end They'll be like, oh, I ain't got time to be dealing with this person's parent or this, and that they do those things behind closed doors. So we have to make sure that we are not necessarily kissing nobody's tail because we're not going to do that. But we cannot be problematic either. I started off as a problematic parent and now I am a team playing parent because I know and I see that that is effective and it works, and it works for the betterment of my child.
Speaker 2:You know what? I appreciate that you said that it is Desiree. Why is it illegal for teachers to advise parents that their child may need mental help? And that's a good question. But, jacqueline, thank you for that, because you bring up a valid point that I want to transition to, and, desiree, we're going to ask that question. But I want to transition to Robin because, robin, you started out in the school system as a teacher and then you went and started doing your homeschooling your children and then working with other students and then now tutoring. How was it different, was it a different experience when it was homeschool versus working in the school system? What was that experience like and what was the success rate of the students? Were they more apt to learn and to listen, and how does that work out for you?
Speaker 4:What I will say is kids are the same. You know, if it's public, if it's private, if it's homeschool, kids are the same. What was different is the control that I had when I was homeschooling. You know I had to jack some little boys up. You know that came to me thinking that they could do what they did in public school and their parents gave me the permission.
Speaker 4:It was like the one room schoolhouse back in the days. When, you know, you have 10, 15 kids, I'm meeting each one at their level and telling them we're not going to be playing any of these games. And now, you know, looking back five years, I have one student. He's just got accepted to Morehouse. He just started, you know, my daughter's at Spelman. Like all of the kids that are homeschooled, they're doing exceptionally well. But they came to me. Their, their stories were very similar to the parents that we hear tonight. Like public school is just not working. My child needs an IEP, they're getting bullied, they're getting picked on, and so they looked to me in terms of finding a different option for their children. But the kids are the same.
Speaker 4:And I think it's the expectation, it's like what you expect of them, and when you raise the bar and the standard for them, then they're able to excel in that environment. Right, I'm not playing with you, but I think sometimes in public school, when you have a caseload like Tracy said, of all these students, the teacher feels hopeless, it's too much, and so, and also, I don't have the bureaucracy and you gotta be teaching this standard or you gotta do this Like I'm meeting kids where they're at, you know, and that makes a very, very big difference because it builds the kids confidence when you're meeting them where they're at. The kids that I tutor now I'm meeting. The boy I met with today is in fifth grade and he's reading on a kindergarten level, you know. But I'm meeting him one on one and one thing I'm working with him on is building his confidence, right, but what does that look like when he's in the classroom? Right, and of course kids are going to snicker.
Speaker 2:I mean, I can't believe it looks like behavior, it looks like right, because I don't want people to know that I can't read and he's. So I'm going to cause an issue, I'm going to cause a disturbance, I'm going to distract everybody because I don't want people to know that I cannot read.
Speaker 4:Yes, it looks different. It does look different, and I mean he does have a learning disorder that has taken him so long to get there, but he's still got to learn how to read.
Speaker 4:Somebody got to put the time in and invest in him, right? But at the end of the day, kids I have seen from you know homeschooling to teaching in the public school, to my kids going to Ron Clark, to going to boarding school, which is a whole nother experience because these kids, their parents, are paying $60,000 a year. Kids are still going to be kids at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Thank you so much. You know so, desiree. You were. You were in the from the from what. Why was it important for you to make sure that you were doing? Why was it important for you to make sure that you were doing?
Speaker 2:You were there in your child's school from the beginning, from, from, from pre-K, all the way up to graduation. Why was that important for you? And how did you find the time? So that's the. That's the thing, because that's what we hear a lot of the parents. Well, I have to work, I don't have time. That those were excuses. I was lucky enough in the beginning to work in the school system, so my children went to the school that I worked at. So they were there their whole elementary school years and then they didn't go to a different school until I quit the school system and then they started going to, you know, regular school. Well, it was still regular school, but they started going to their various neighborhood schools and it was a different situation. So how did you? Why was that important to you that you be there? And they know okay, okay, that's Kyle's mama.
Speaker 6:Well, first of all, the time factor came from as far as me, and having a lot of time to be in the school system as much as I was, I had got diagnosed with a sleeping disorder and so I couldn't do a lot of the work that it takes to be a chef clock in and possibly never clock out, being at my job for 16, 17 hours at a time. It just became impossible. So I had to take something more low key that was going to require me to be able to do my job but take breaks when I needed to. So my son at a young age, you know he would come home and he would tell me stories and you know just things, things I would notice, like when I was just there anyway on my off days, you know, I would see a lot of things go on, like kids would come in there and they would just do wild and crazy things and they wouldn't even be disciplined. That's the word I'm looking for disciplined. And so also my son had went to. He was fortunate enough to have a daycare teacher that taught him all the things he needed for kindergarten. So when the year came for him to go to kindergarten, like so many other children. They were so advanced they skipped them from kindergarten to first grade because they considered a waste of time for them to take up those kindergarten seats for other kids when they could have just went on to first grade. Well, they passed over my child and kept him in kindergarten. And so there was a big argument about that, because I was like, clearly my son was acing all the tests showing them on paper that he really could be going from kindergarten to first grade. So I ended up just leaving it alone. I let him stay in kindergarten. I said, lord, there must be a reason why they want to keep him here. But he was getting bored you know what I mean With a lot of the stuff that was going on, like so many of the other kids. But kids would start acting out, doing stuff, and I noticed that they weren't really doing anything about it, the kids that were being very disruptive in the classroom. Kids would pick up chairs and throw them, and one girl got badly injured because a kid picked up and threw a chair and hit her in the head, and they would just take those kids and just put them in other classrooms for the day. Well, you need a break from here we're going to send you to miss so-and-so classroom and I was like how was that going to help the kid? Because they're just going to another classroom to disrupt that class. You know what I mean.
Speaker 6:So as I got involved in that, I started spending more and more time, you know. Less work and more and more. I had the convenience, the ability to spend less time at work and more time at the school, because at this time I was getting really invested, like what can I do, you know, to help the situation out, you know? So I started trying to recruit other parents and then the teachers saw how active I was and they started using me to do a whole different. Ms Williams, will you do this, will you do that?
Speaker 6:And before you knew it, I had a full schedule, like I was a regular teacher, you know what I mean. So, and I enjoyed it, I really did enjoy it. So it didn't I didn't mind, you know what I mean. But, um, that kindergarten and I had been. I followed him all the way up until he graduated and I got him so involved in so many things. I started based on my college credentials. I started teaching Spanish to some of the kids anytime there was a teacher out they would just throw me in as a sub and you know different things like that. But I really really enjoyed my time in school system with the kids. But it just made me so sad when you know things, unfair things would happen to kids and you know the teachers was like they just so tired, they was like, well, we don't want to be bothered, we don't really care and you know, just let it be. You know, whatever it is.
Speaker 2:And that really upset me Cause I was like if you guys are not going to care, then who's going to?
Speaker 6:care. You know what I mean who's going to care? Very, very frustrating to see that. And one of the things like the question I brought up about the discipline and advising the parents that the child may need some type of help is because after I was seeing all these violent acts and things like that, I was asking the teacher. I said why can't you talk to Mr and Ms So-and-so and let them know that you know their child possibly could need some mental help? You're just making a suggestion, you're not telling them. You know what to do, whatever. And she was like they were like no, no, we can't do that, it's illegal, and this, this and that. And I was like well, why can you explain that to me? And I never really got a full explanation as to the legality of why. You know a teacher can't suggest to a parent that something's wrong, because my thing is communication is everything. If you see that your child is acting up not just once but a whole bunch of times, clearly there's something wrong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what I mean. Stephanie, can you answer that question?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so one of the things that we have to be careful in education is how we word things to parents because they can take it to say.
Speaker 3:they said my child needs this and how the school is obligated to pay for it. School is obligated to pay for it. So a lot oftentimes administrators would tell teachers not to say things to parents because of the wording that needed to be done, not to say that the parent can't hear, that there is a possibility that they would need, you know, certain services, but it usually we usually wanted that to come either from an administrator or from, like, a counselor or somebody who is certified in that area to talk from that perspective and from that point of view. So it's not that we can't tell them, the schools can't tell them, it's just that how the protocol and the process and the road to telling them is going to look a little bit different to ensure that we are in compliance with the policies that are in place. It's kind of like my.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like my doctor can observe something but she can't diagnose it, so she has to send me to my rheumatologist rheumatologist to tell me that my what my primary care already suspected, but she couldn't say it, so they had to do it because she is not her area of expertise. So, and and and right, I remember being in in the work, working in the program for exceptional children, and seeing the parents. When you're right, you have to be very careful because words matter and the parents saying, saying something, and being very specific, because a lot of things is tied to money, so they're listening for those key words. And then it's like, ok, so my child needs this, so the school is obligated to pay for that. And then, before you know it, you look and you see, you know, little Johnny has, you know, somebody coming to twist the hair every day. You know, you know I'm being I'm being extreme, but that's not far from it. So so I want to ask and you know, guys, it's, the time just goes by so fast I want to ask everybody this question. So we're talking about education redefined. So how do we redefine it? We redefine it in. Everybody has their own way or their own thought process of what should be how things should be handled. Robin, I love that you said a child in school is the same as a child being homeschooled. Children are children. They're still the same. So, from a different perspective, if there is something in education that you would change, this question is for everybody. So we give everybody about two minutes to answer this question.
Speaker 2:If there was anything in the school system, in the scope of education, that you would change, what would it be? What would that thing be? Something that would be beneficial? Because sometimes we go through and we think what would be beneficial for my child and our child, a senior in high school, and they're on their way out and sometimes it's like, okay, my child is not there anymore, so they gone, I don't care, but we still have things happening in our community that's directly affecting education. So if there is something that you could change that would make it better for the masses, what would that one thing be that can be implemented now and we know money is an option, but if this were an ideal situation, in an ideal world, money was of no object. What would that one thing be? And I think I'm gonna start with Robin, robin, what would that thing be? What would you change if you could change anything?
Speaker 4:Well, you started saying money, because that was what I first went. My mind went to money. Right, justin? I tell my son this all the time he was in kindergarten, the year I quit teaching, I was making $60,000 a year the year I quit, and that was in 2013. So I tell him for every year I didn't work, just think about how much money I could have made, right. And then he ended up going to Ron Clark.
Speaker 4:He did get a scholarship, but I still paid and then he went to boarding school and in boarding school, $60,000 a year, but I probably paid four to five for my daughter and my son to both go to boarding school. So money means a lot, right In terms of access. Now I'm renting a condo up north just so my son can get a good education, and so I think that if we give, if we put I've paid taxes for my house for 20 years but my kids don't go to school here right. So if the money could follow them, I think kids were more options and we give parents more options. I'm from California. Homeschool parents in California get paid to homeschool their kids.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 4:But here in Georgia that's not such a thing, and so I think that if we put the money with it, I think it gives parents more access, more options, so that they can do what's best for their kids and having you know, like Desiree said, like I can't really work and be pouring into my own children on top of it, right. So I think that's the starting point to start seeing some difference, because we're funding these public schools left and right and we know that a lot of them are not doing the job right, and but they keep giving them that you know that daily money for showing up even though our kids are not learning, and so I think that's a starting point based on the head count.
Speaker 2:Yep, jack, let me go to you. What would you? What would that one thing be?
Speaker 7:You know what? I totally agree with what Robin said Definitely make sure that the money that goes into the pot and what is supposed to be, what's supposed to be given, is given to the exact things that's in the plan. That's one thing. So a strict eye on the budget. But also, you know that stigma of of of the teachers I'm going to get paid anyway. I'm 35 years old and I've had teachers tell me that from kindergarten all the way up until I graduated college, it doesn't matter if one kid show up or 20 kids show up. So I think it's just more so of the teacher's attitude towards their job and towards their, towards the parents.
Speaker 7:A lot of times and me being a former teacher as well, I feel like like I could speak on this.
Speaker 7:A lot of times the teachers are just are there and they enter schools that are in an urban community just so they can get their tuition paid off for free or whatever it is, and get it waived, and then they go, and then they go teach at different schools and then they leave our kids behind. So I feel like if the teachers would not take offense to a parent like me who's very active, very engaged and want to work with you and want to be transparent with you. Don't be insulted if I email you and ask you a question about the agenda or the for lack of better terms the curriculum, or you know how is this supposed to go? What's going to happen if this why my kid is not getting this accommodation and you take automatically take offense and then you get on defense and then you bite at me and then that makes me feel like I can't ask a question about my own child's education, because now your child's a target.
Speaker 7:Now, my child is absolutely a target and you don't want to have anything to do with me as a parent. But then they say, oh well, the parents don't want to be active, for the parents who do, who are very active, who are very concerned, and who who is trying to work with you on a constant basis.
Speaker 7:um, just just just if, if you want to teach, teach because you want to teach, don't teach for the paycheck and I'm gonna leave it at that, even though the paycheck ain't that great I I know it's not and the benefits are not that great.
Speaker 7:And if that is the case, then you go and you do what you're passionate about, because whatever it is that you're passionate about and whatever gift that God has given you to do, he's going to bless it a hundredfold. And maybe teaching is not for you, but teachers should. Kids should not go into a school and be on a battlefield, because when we drop our kids off, they're walking through a hundred spirits through that school and they are there alone and we are not there to protect them. And you guys are with our kids more than we are, over 40 hours a week. When we get them, they still have to come home. They have to do your homework Okay Then they are, have to have dinner with us, maybe 30 minutes, and then they're back in bed. So for five days, eight hours a day, they are with you guys and we expect you to treat them like you treat your own.
Speaker 7:And I'm going to leave it at that, right?
Speaker 2:Okay, I like that, because you are raising our kids.
Speaker 7:You are, whether you want it to be or not, you are babysitters. You are in charge of our kids' lives and our kids' futures, and if you are not going to take accountability for that and if you are not going to take it serious, it's not the job for you. Give it to people like Desiree or Robin or Tracy. Give it to those type of people who actually love what they do, who actually love helping kids and watching them grow. And, like Melanie Johnson, who's not here, like Queenie Clem, who's not here, these are actually teachers who love what they do. They are passionate about what they do, like Miss Stephanie Conley, who knows every single thing you want to know. She know it tonight. So these are people who actually care about the kids.
Speaker 7:But for the teachers who don't, it's not the job for you. I don't feel safe with my kids. With you, I will take my kids out in a second. And Miss Laquita Parks, no, no, I don't care about stability when it comes to my kids. I care about safety and I care about who cares about mine and if they, if y'all, if you can't do it, I will bring them home and do it myself yeah, absolutely, absolutely desiree.
Speaker 2:Thank you, jacqueline desiree. What one thing would you change? You're you're muted.
Speaker 6:Yeah, that's hard, because I I heard the whole thing about the money, of course, so I'm not going to repeat that, because I totally agree with everything everybody said. But another aspect would be, um, the the parents being involved. You know what I mean? I did not, and I still do not, see enough parents being involved, and and then, when they are involved, it's only because something has gone wrong. You know what I mean. We need to be there when things are going great. We need to support these teachers more. We need to support these kids more, these principals. Let them know that hey, I know your job is hard. I have one at home. You got 25 of them in your classroom that are acting all the same way. So I feel like if these teachers were supported more you know whether it's financial or emotional, you know that would make them feel better as well, because they're humans too. You know what I mean.
Speaker 6:But, like Jacqueline was saying, you can't do this for a paycheck and just expect that to be, you know, and you can't. That's just not a job. It's like you don't expect your doctor to be uh, you know, because maybe he got, uh, his paycheck cut. You don't expect your health, you know, your him to care less about. You know how you are, and that's how a lot of people die in the healthcare system because the people are not getting paid what they want and they're like, well, you know what, we'll just give them an aspirin and send them on their way. It's kind of like what we're doing the same thing in these schools. And you know, voting is important because we're not asking a lot of these politicians. You know the like, the current situation that's going on, and I'm not going to get into that but just based on the current situation now, who they want in that presidential seat.
Speaker 6:I've heard nothing but money, money, money, money, money, money is gonna depend on who I'm gonna vote for. What about humanity? What about caring? What about respect? You know what I'm saying. I've heard none of that mentioned. All I'm hearing about is just things that relate to money and so, unfortunately, avarice, which is the root of all evil. That's the love of money that makes, which is the root of all evil. That's the love of money that makes that determines everything in this world. If you think about any problem, you can always trace it back to something financial. You know what I mean, and that's a huge problem. That's a huge problem.
Speaker 6:You got to show these kids that you care. You know, no matter what, you got to show them that you care. Some of these kids that I've actually been with in the classrooms, especially some of the troubled ones who get in trouble every single day I pull them to the side and say hey, look, what's going on with you? What do you need? Why are you acting like this? What's going on? And once they see that somebody actually cares and just has a one-on-one conversation with them, I've seen kids do a total 180 because all they wanted to do is know that somebody cared about them. You know what I mean. And then you know kids are looking at them or parents are looking at them like, well, what happened? Why did little Johnny stop? You know he doesn't really act on my own, he just wanted somebody to talk to. You know what I mean.
Speaker 6:But a lot of people won't even take that time. You know they may not be getting it at home, they're not getting to school, so where are they going to get it at? Then you wonder why they joined a gang. You know, because no matter what you join, whether it's a cult, a gang, a church group, whatever the whole thing they have in common is friendship and acceptance. You know what I mean. So a lot of these kids could probably steer it in the right direction if people showed that they cared more. You know, and just just make the time, these jobs, they need to take more empathy on these parents who have children say, hey, I know, you know y'all, you've been working really hard, whatever. Whatever, I'll let you have an hour off If you need to run up to your child's school. You know how they have. You know just different things. You know the reason why you need to leave your job.
Speaker 6:A lot of parents are so scared 're going to lose their job, they put their kids on the back burner and it's like it's not until something goes wrong that the parent is involved.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry. I love that because you're right. Teachers need support. They need support the money, robin is correct. Jacqueline, I agree with that. Desiree, I agree with what you're saying. They need support and I was fortunate enough to work for the Kroger company where my supervisors were very big on education.
Speaker 2:They were very big on education. They wanted you. My supervisor, lori Smith, was my supervisor for 15 years and she was very purposeful on that. She wanted you. You know your child has an activity at school. Go, go to your child's activity, Go here. They were very, very, very supportive in that and I was lucky.
Speaker 2:And at the same time I need to. I'm going to my son's school or I have to go, blah, blah, blah. So I'm not asking permission because I feel like if I asked you for permission, that gives you the right to tell me no, there is no such thing where my child is concerned, because it's my responsibility. Robin, you said it first. Tracy, you said it, jacqueline, you said it. It is my responsibility to take care of my children first, because they have me. When my son was in high school, he had a problem with the teacher and I used to tell my children all the time it is not your responsibility to have a conversation with an adult. That's my job. So if you're having a problem with the teacher, then your responsibility is to tell me. If the teacher is not being fair to you, it's not your responsibility to go back and forth with them. That's my job. I can handle that and I handle that.
Speaker 7:So yes, jacqueline, I just want to piggyback on that because my son going into middle school, um, I I stay advocating for him for sixth and seventh grade and the the teachers really fought me on that, and the staff as well. They were oh well, he's old enough, he should be able to advocate for himself. And I felt like at 11 and 12 years old, especially with a 504 plan and he's ADHD. I will never, because the moment that our kids start to advocate for themselves, they will become behavioral issues. They will try to suspend them for talking back or being disrespectful to the teacher. So I told them absolutely not At 11, 12, even 13 years old. If my son has an issue with you as an adult, I will address you as an adult and I'm not going to hear anything about oh well, he should be able to advocate for himself. No, that's what he has a mom for.
Speaker 5:Absolutely.
Speaker 7:As a dad for.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 7:Absolutely, absolutely Advocate for your kids.
Speaker 2:You have to Absolutely. Thank you, tracy. What's what with the? What one thing would you change education as an educator and a parent, what would you change in the education system as an educator and a parent, what would you change in the education system?
Speaker 5:It's really loaded because I mean, like everybody else, I'm on the panel. You know I'm on both sides of the coin, as a mother and as a parent. I'm going to speak as a parent first and I think you know it's just reiterating what Ms Jacqueline has said, and I'm going to say it this way I don't put the sole responsibility of my kids being educated on the teacher. I believe that education starts at home. Okay, when my children both of them learned how to read fluently at three, where they weren't in school, I taught them how to read. I taught them letters and sounds. I taught them blending. I taught them, you know, those first sets of sight words that they needed.
Speaker 5:You know, when Maya went to kindergarten, we were in the middle of the pandemic and her kindergarten teacher said I don't know what you did with her at home, but she has surpassed all of the kindergarten sight words. She's on the first grade sight word list. By the end of kindergarten she was reading on the second grade level. That was what I did at home. You know, I don't. You know, like Ms Jackie said, they're at school more than they are at home, so I'm working, I'm not in the classroom to see what the teacher's teaching, how the teachers teach and you know and all of that. They bring their work home and I mean they have the blessing of having a mother as a teacher so I can look at their work and see what needs to be done and how you know they need to be taught. You know, in different strategies and things like that.
Speaker 5:But I'm not going to put that sole responsibility on a teacher like you. You're going to educate my child, you're going to teach my child. You're going to do this with my child I, you know. Now I'm flipping over to the teacher side. You have that one child, or maybe you have two or three children at home that you're responsible for. Not only do I have my two or three children, my two girls that I'm responsible for, but I'm responsible for another 40, 38 children. So, how you know, now I'm going to pose a question how do you expect me to give special, specialized instruction and treatment of your child out of the 40.
Speaker 2:So what's the if you could change it, what?
Speaker 5:would that be you? Know where the parent is happy, where the admin is happy, where the child is happy and don't feel like they're being, you know, neglected or under attack.
Speaker 2:So what would your thing, what would you do to change, what would the one thing you do, that what change would you make?
Speaker 5:For me, I think that parents and teachers and I try to do this even now try to build that bond in that relationship where we're not at each other's necks, working together. The kid needs to see that we're on the same page, because your child sees that you know your mama is barking at the teacher and you know, and if I, you know, if I get in trouble, I know my mama's going to come up there and get that teacher straight.
Speaker 2:And I'm barking at the teacher as a child, because I see my mama do it, because my mama going to side with me, what did?
Speaker 5:she do. Exactly, exactly right, exactly right. So at that point am I still supposed to be extra sugary sweet? You know, my mother, bless her dad, told me all the time you are so professional, you're more professional than I am. She said I couldn't do it, I would lose my job because I'm not going to allow a child to come and be disrespectful, you know, to an adult or to you. Know to the teachers at the school. You know to the teachers at the school. You're there to learn, they are there to teach you.
Speaker 2:You know, if you know more than them, then you don't need to be there. You know I like that because there are a lot of students. I remember my and Stephanie. I'm coming to you. I say the best for last because I have some. I know you got some stuff.
Speaker 2:One of the, my sister, used to work at the school system and she used to be, and you know, like I think Robin, you talked about those duties, having the duties where somebody's on door duty, somebody's on late duty, somebody's on, and she was on. She was on late duty. I mean when the kids would come to school late and they had to get a pass to get to class and get in class because they were late. Some of the stories she would, she would hear and this was elementary school and some of the students would come and she was like, why are you late? Well, we was me and my me and my brother was at the jail last night. My mom and daddy, my mom and her boyfriend got busted, or my mama kept me up all night because her and and and her boyfriend was fighting, and so these are real things that these kids are coming to school with. So imagine that's one, imagine 10 in one class, so they haven't slept, they're going through all this, and then it's a cake, it's a powder keg, and then you don't see the parents until I think you said it, robin, you said it, desiree, all y'all said it until there is a problem.
Speaker 2:And when there is a problem you get a lot of times the parents come, especially in the public school system. It's a little different in the private sector, but the parents come and they want to know. You know, first of all, my child don't act like that at home. I'm surprised because my child don't act like that at home. I'm surprised because my child don't act like that at home and where they get that from and not my child. And so then you have a situation where the parent is not an ally. So the parents and the teachers are sparring and, like you said, tracy, the student sees that and they know okay, well, I can go in and treat my teacher any kind of way because I know my mom are going to get my mom or my parents going to get going to side with me and I'm not going to get in any trouble with it. So I like that.
Speaker 2:So it needs to be communication and work together as a team. So, stephanie, what's the one thing that you would change? And you know we we have about three minutes to talk about how things are a little different from the public school sector, because you came from a middle school Clayton County, Riverdale Middle School for 16 years and then you principled a charter school. So a whole different, whole different dynamic. And Kevin asked the question what is the training like for new teachers? Are they giving them adequate training? Or they say, hey, we got some new teachers, we sure to stay up here, get them in there and you learn as you go. So talk about that, stephanie.
Speaker 3:All right, so I'll start with the latter. In terms of new teacher orientation, we can, we can take teachers through new teacher orientation. We can take teachers through new teacher orientation. You can come from the background of having educational training to be an educator. You can come from the private sector and transition into education, but nothing prepares you for when you set foot in that classroom and you have to encounter 20, 25, 30, 35 children that are looking at you and you have to be prepared to educate them. Nothing prepares you for that.
Speaker 3:Now, one of the things that is super important and this doesn't go with my list but mentorship of having teachers that are seasoned, teachers not only that are seasoned but do their job well. Supporting new teachers is vitally important. So the mentorship program within schools, within districts, is one of the basic fundamentals that is really going to help new teachers grow, and grow in a way that is going to be supportive of the overall mission and vision of the school district. The thing that I would like to see happen in school systems that is fundamentally going to change the way that we do education is about the relationships and building back of community within schools. When you build relationships, not only with your students that are within your classrooms, but with parents, with other community members, to be able to bring in some of those things that we bodily need in order to support the overall school. It's going to change the way we do school. It's gonna change the way we do school. It's going to change the way we have parents invited to come in or feel like the school is open to them coming in and them having communication with their teachers and with the administrators or with whoever within the building.
Speaker 3:One of the things that was very important at our charter school was for us, for our, our parents, to have a number that they can get in contact with the teacher, Not saying that the teacher is going to respond to you at 11 o'clock at night, 10 o'clock at night, nine o'clock at night, but there is a another way besides emailing um a teacher, that you can get in contact with the teacher for your child, and that helped to once again broaden and build out the community and build out relationships.
Speaker 3:We had a phenomenal parent liaison that not only was she based in a way that made it open for the parents to want to contact her, but it showed that the relationship that she had with them transcended over within the teachers, within the classrooms and with the administrators. So one of the things that is so important is that relationships matter, Understanding that a lot of not a lot of our parents, but some of our parents come from a negative experience in education and when you know that, then you understand why they may respond to you in a way that is going to feel like it's confrontational at heart. That I know every last child in my building. I have a relationship, they can come and have a conversation with me as a principal, that I have an open door policy for both my parents, my students, my staff. It's so important to helping to run a building and run the community of the building in a different way.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, wow. Listen, I thank you, stephanie, thank you so much for that. Tracy, thank you so much for everything that you do, oh my goodness. Desiree, thank you so much for everything. Jacqueline Cox, thank you so much, so much, and Robin, thank you so much, so much, so much. Listen, and yes, tracy, if anybody on here is interested, if you're an educator, if you're a teacher, tracy is doing an anthology for teachers the 5Ws and connect with her, or connect with me, me and I can connect you with her if you're interested in being a part of this anthology for education.
Speaker 2:Listen, guys, earlier today I said thank you for your service and you guys hit it on the nail. You guys hit the nail with the hammer because what you do is so important. Stephanie and Desiree and I, and Jacqueline and I have talked about that before. How many of you remember that teacher that made a difference in your life? How many of you remember the teacher that you loved, that you talked about all the time and you cried in the summertime because you didn't get a chance to see her? How many of you? And then, how many of you remember that teacher that was mean to you and that teacher who, who was always picking on you and probably said you wasn't going to amount to anything. Teachers make a difference in our lives and in the lives of our children, so for that, I tell you, thank you for your service. Thank you for staying in the trenches, tracy, stephanie, thank you for not only just being a source of education and a resource, but of love and compassion and seeing the children as individuals, and they have a heart that's like. As a Christian, I have to see everybody's soul. So everybody has a soul, which means everybody. There's hope for everybody. So, kevin von, thank you so much for um. You know we we went way past our time, but thank you so much for your patience and for producing this show.
Speaker 2:Listen, guys, I believe that 100 of everybody living in dead has a story and as educators, as parents and even as parents, we, we're educators, right, we all have a story. And so you guys, if you're listening to this show, you've heard just a snippet of these stories. So what I want you to do, if you're listening to this story, at the end of the story, reach out to these ladies. Reach out to Jacqueline Cox. Jacqueline Cox is doing some amazing things. Listen, linda, listen, linda. Reach out to Jacqueline and connect with her and collaborate with her on some of her projects.
Speaker 2:Uh, if you need a chef and you're in the Atlanta area, reach out to Desiree man. I mean, she can do some things in the kitchen. Okay, um, tracy has some books coming out. She has three and her baby girl has a book coming out. Reach out to Tracy and connect with her.
Speaker 2:Robin, robin, we didn't get a chance to talk to her, but we can. We can have some individual shows and talk about what you're doing, but you talked about insurance and and tutoring and what you're doing to make a difference. Reach out, reach out. Reach out to Robin and connect with her. You need insurance. We all need some insurance. Okay, and Stephanie, listen, if you guys are in education, if you guys are the administrators and my education friends and my administration friends, reach out to Stephanie, because she is an amazing, invaluable resource that you need to have. And for those of you who are looking for a platform to connect on to make sure that you get your message out and it is not convoluted, it is not watered down, reach out to Kevin Vaughn with the MLT Network. If you're Christian based, too, and you're looking to get your message out, reach out to Kevin Vaughn and listen. Ms Listen, linda has a podcast show, so each one of you ladies sign up with Listen, linda sign up with Jacqueline, and she's in what a million and 500 countries. Kevin is in a million and 300 countries, so connect with them and continue to tell your stories.
Speaker 2:So I am Laquita Parks. I am the host of so what's your Story? I also am the host of my Heart on Pages and I am also the CEO and founder of PayProV Publishing, because 100% of everybody living and dead has a story. So I thank you guys, I thank you, I thank you. I thank you. Keep doing what you're doing. Our children need you. So when you guys start getting a little, you know, start saying okay, I can't take it anymore. Remember your why, remember your, why. Remember why you got it. And I have to do that every day with PayProV. Okay, this is why I did. This is why I do it. Remember your why? Okay, listen, if all hearts and minds are clear, I just want to say it has been a plump, pleasing pleasure Better than a triple deck of peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That's my story and I'm sticking to it Until next time. Be amazing. I love you, I love you, I love you. Thank you, thank you you.
