Hall County Looks Into Cutting SROs, Nurses, Parapros and Even Teachers

It’s no surprise to anyone that government is going to have to cut spending dramatically to offset the revenue shortfalls.  The state of Georgia has thought abuot cutting funding for school nurses, and now Hall County is looking into cutting nurses, SROs and teachers among other things.  Many parents credit school nurses with saving their child’s life.  Here’s what Jennie Clayton-Nedza has to say;

“If there hadn’t been a nurse there when my son, Joe (a diabetic who was in middle school at the time), had an extremely low blood sugar (40) . He was walking down a hall that was meant for another grade level and a teacher realized he was on the wrong hall. He couldn’t talk. He could barely walk. She knew he needed the nurse. He made it to the nurses office and she immediately pushed him to drink juice. He couldn’t hold the box to drink. She had to squeeze it into his mouth just a little at a time. I believe that any moment he was going to go into a seizure. Without her knowledge of the problems related to low blood sugars she may have waited too long. She may have taken his silence as being rude. I hate to think about what might have happened if a nurse hadn’t been there.”

This is from Cindy Kenimer Mize;

“My 2nd year at CMS, “Little Johnny” came in to see me. He said he wasn’t feeling well. He had a temp of 100.8. All he complained of was fatigue and muscle aches in his legs. After the usual questions to rule out “my assumptions”, he told me about the “red bump” on his L~thigh. He said he thought he had been bitten. He had not told mom, he didn’t think it was nothing to worry about. I ask to see it, OMG!!!!! He had red streaks running up & down his leg. The area was hot to touch and red. I called mom and told her he must go the the ER immediately. Within 1 hour he had been admitted and was recieving the immediate care he needed. The doctor told his mother, he had sepsis and could have died very soon. He spent 4 days in the hospital. When he returned to school he came to see me and I got the biggest hug and then he said, “Thank you Nurse Mize, you saved my life”. I just gave praise to GOD that I was there!
What will happen when we’re not?”

Wow, it’s got to be really hard to cut out a school nurse after hearing of such incredible stories.  Hall County is also thinking of ending their 70% sponsorship of School Resource Officers (SRO).  Currently there are officers at every Hall County Middle and High school.  Under the proposal, the County would only cut those officers in the middle schools.  Today The Gainesville Times ran an article concerning middle school SROs.  Corporal Vic Gazaway is an SRO at South Hall Middle School, he was featured in the article, which you can find here.  Corporal Gazaway made a few statements which really struck me.  He had mentioned that middle school years are very important in a child’s life and that his, and other SROs presence in their lives at school really helps them to develop a trust.  Gazaway also said that without that trust, it would be much harder for the high school SROs to connect with the students.  I couldn’t agree more.  Gang activity has really slowed down since these SROs have been placed, and that’s great.  But the problem is whether or not the money will be there as Hall County is trying to cut salaries all across the board.  Hall Countty Schools Superinendent Will Schofield had the following to say;

“We’ve got everything from nurses to school resource officers to graduation coaches to instructional coaches, and most fundamentally … classroom teachers,” Schofield said”

The Gainesville Times

As everyone will be affected in one way or another, my prayers go out to the School Board members.  They are being faced with very tough decisions right now and either way they will come under harsh criticism.  I wish we didn’t have to go through all of this, but we must.