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John G

Beach Fanatic
Jul 16, 2014
1,803
553
Oh shes going to write the story have no fear of that and her slant will be she thinks this is a witch hunt and 15 year old news because she is not an investigative reporter and nobody contacted her about any of this.

--------------------------------

Just as she has sung the silly Mayor of Defuniak Springs and Diane Pickett praises for trying to keep this City in the 18th century and asking the mayor for his side of the story and his throwing a temper tantrum for something he agreed to in a public meeting and later reneged on, leaving me wondering if she and I actually attended the same meeting and she wasn't the reporter sitting directly in front of me. Her story and the mayor in this weeks edition of the paper are so far from the truth of what transpired at the meeting I was at, I thought I was watching a twilight zone episode.

Shoddy reporting helps keep this City backward and unable to move forward. Thanks for your participation in that Alicia....great job. KUDOS!

Oh and BTW, read Diane Picketts's letter to the editor and her VISION for Defuniak.

Whatever happens keep life all about the historic district and downtown Defuniak and remember folks Ms. Pickett want's things just the way they were 60 some odd years ago.

Read the back page also and how the Main Street Project (to revitalize Defuniak) might well cost the taxpayers 30 thousand dollars if the Mayor and Pickett have their way.

Isn't a City Employee that works in the mayor / front office the son or daughter of the owner of The Herald Newspaper?
 

Kaydence

Beach Fanatic
Jan 19, 2017
1,415
1,124
Florida
Isn't a City Employee that works in the mayor / front office the son or daughter of the owner of The Herald Newspaper?


Honestly @John G I have no idea. Unlike the Mayor, I do not involve myself in the day to day operations of City Government. I just recently started attending City Council meetings again and the reason I got involved were because of some prehistoric, antiquated ordinances involving garbage pick up. My father is 84 years old (a senior citizen), on oxygen 24/7 and has a host of other medical issues that prevent him from being able to get the roll out to the curb. I have my own health issues and struggle with it as well. The way the code was written was much simpler than the hurdles the sanitation dept. was trying erect which included a notarized statement from a physician (a charge for an office visit, then a charge to a notary) and a City employee making contact to verify/document that there was not an ABLE BODIED person in the home and that all the aforementioned is true. The way the code is/was written states just the fact he is 84 years old and a 25 year resident of DFS along with the handicapped stickers on both his vehicles, he qualified for them to actually have to walk to the side of the house and haul the roll out to the truck. (It was all quite ridiculous!) I won't even mention that since then, they have hired a new sanitation worker and did not give her the list of folks who qualify for this service, our garbage pick up these days is HIT OR MISS! A friend living in the historic district of the same age, and similar disabilities is having the same problem.

The point here is, that if you give people the tools they need to do their jobs (in this case a list of house side pick-ups) and send them on their way, they can do the job but when the City is hampered by a Mayor with his own agenda and city employees time is CONSUMED with petty, immature, childish behavior that WARRANTED FRONT PAGE NEWS (and a healthy does of WHINE by the Mayor in a continued "on page whatever" RANT) and a letter from the City Attorney with a directive that his office would be moved, its IMPOSSIBLE to FOCUS on the fact that the City NEEDS a City Manager, a Finance Director, a utility billing clerk, and police officers that we are losing at an alarming rate because the Chief is a petty tyrant!

I won't mention the money the City is losing in state funding because audits HAVE NOT been completed from years ago. I will suggest however that Mac Carpenter's (ex-council member) man for the job was about an inept as a bull in a china shop and Mac Carpenter's comment that the letter from the auditor "meant nothing, that all Cities receive them" was about one of the most ignorant remarks he ever made as a sitting council member. He was voted out for MORE THAN ONE reason.

Then you have Diane Pickett who has her nose so far up the backside of the Mayor she can smell breakfast, who wants life in Defuniak to continue as it did in the early early 1900's with roller derby's on main street, box car races replete with picnic lunches to "revitalize" downtown Defuniak and $75K of taxpayer money, $30K of which they want to see the County pay in order to "get er done" while the rich owners of the buildings sit back and watch it all happen.

And I won't mention how some of the Mayor's "circle" has gone about town begging people to show up at the next Council meeting Monday to tell the Council about the Mayor's EX-office space, and how that space has been the Mayor's for 50 years or better. It doesn't matter to them that this City is trying to grow and the needs of City employees to have the ability to meet the demands of their job are changing. For them its all about appearances and making an honorary position look like an EMPEROR (with NO clothes) is representing the City, who loves this it so much, he is doing everything in his VERY LIMITED power to keep things just the way they have always been!
 

John G

Beach Fanatic
Jul 16, 2014
1,803
553
Since this stream is basically about Walton Schools...

Was there actually a teacher that "couldn't wake up" a young kid and left him / her locked in a classroom to miss graduation?

You can't make this up, is it true?
 

Kaydence

Beach Fanatic
Jan 19, 2017
1,415
1,124
Florida
Since this stream is basically about Walton Schools...

Was there actually a teacher that "couldn't wake up" a young kid and left him / her locked in a classroom to miss graduation?

You can't make this up, is it true?


www.nwfdailynews.com/news/20170523/report-sleeping-child-locked-in-classroom-while-fellow-students-graduated#vf-widget-art-4FDE5991-DB63-063E-E053-0100007F06ED-pub2884

Six-year-old boy was supposed to be on stage during his kindergarten graduation. Instead, he was allegedly left unattended sleeping under his teacher’s desk.

By Heather Osbourne | 315-4440 | @heatheronwfdn | hosbourne@nwfdailynews.com
DEFUNIAK SPRINGS — An investigation is underway regarding a 6-year-old boy who was left sleeping inside a classroom alone Friday while the rest of his classmates graduated.

Maude Saunders Elementary School student Corey Jackson was supposed to be on stage during his kindergarten graduation. But when his mother, Kari Owens, and his adult cousin, Akela Whitehead, got to the graduation ceremony, they couldn’t find Corey. The two women started to panic, they said.

“We went up to his teacher and asked where he was,” Whitehead said. “She told us that she had left him inside of the classroom and locked the door because she couldn’t wake him up.”

“She just kept smiling at us and told me it was OK, he was only in there for about 45 minutes to an hour,” Owens added.

Assistant Principal Wyndy Crozier said Owens’ allegations were reported to the Department of Children and Family Services (DCF) and the Walton County Sheriff’s Office on Friday. Crozier said the teacher in question refrained from telling her anything about the incident.

“Nothing is verified yet,” Crozier said. “I’m waiting for the DCF investigation. The child had been having episodes of sleeping in the classroom. The teacher had been talking to the mom about getting to the bottom of it. He’s very difficult to wake.”

Corey’s mom said they were instructed by the teacher to wait a moment before she walked with them to retrieve her son. Instead, they rushed to the classroom and pulled on the door, which was unlocked.

“I started screaming for my youngin and he didn’t answer me,” Owens said. “We turned around to try to find the teacher. She walked in, turned the light on and started talking to other parents who walked into the classroom. I screamed, asking where Corey was. She pointed under her desk.”

Maude Saunders is still allowing the teacher of 19 years to continue working with students while under investigation because the “child was unharmed,” Crozier said. The school has not checked any hallway cameras to confirm or deny Owens’ claims.

“If it did happen, it’s not our protocol to leave a child unattended,” Crozier said. “We would have someone with them, like an aide or a nurse. We would not have left him alone.

“This is something that I can’t support if the person did do this,” Crozier continued. “If the outcome of the investigation shows this happened, then we’ll decide the disciplinary action. Safety is No. 1 to us. It’s above everything else.”

Walton County School Board Superintendent Russell Hughes did not comment on the incident, referring all questions to Crozier, according to Hughes’ receptionist.

Owens did not allow Corey to attend school Monday.

“This is not going to be swept under the rug,” Whitehead said. “The child could have been dead in the classroom. What if he had a serious medical condition? What if there was a fire? Why was he under the desk? Children should be accounted for at all times.”
 
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