Indiscriminate — an act done at random or without careful judgment.
It seems to be the perfect word to describe the events surrounding the most recent Raider graduation of 2023.
As documented in a Daily Journal article published on Friday, RSHS Teacher of the Year Tanya Quick resigned from her position as a teacher following her befuddlement over the graduation of two of her failing students, and her subsequent action to pass about 20 of her failing students when school administration failed to give her any satisfactory answers, citing a “third-party interference.”
How any administrator or guidance counselor could accept and enforce a last-minute decision to pass failing students, prompted by a teacher who had been forced into a situation that she had spent months trying to prevent, is absurd. That students were informed of their passing status hours before graduation could be granted the prestige of a Raider diploma taints the entire 12-year journey all students have undergone. Walking across that stage is the culmination of years of hard work and dedication — not a surprise phone call hours beforehand.
In the course of our research into this incident, the Daily Journal was informed of many other examples of discrepancies and inconsistencies regarding the graduation process at Richmond Senior High School that were omitted from the article because the sources of that information did not wish to go on the record for fear of retribution. There were students who were told they were going to walk at graduation who were barred from the ceremony, as well as students being told of certain prerequisites while watching those same rules being applied seemingly at random for their peers.
If there is a well-maintained and formal procedure for informing students of their graduation status, it appears to have collapsed a few months ago. Yes, with final exams butting up against graduation, there will certainly be some last-minute decisions that will inevitably occur. But for students to be told hours beforehand that ‘Hey, your teacher quit, come to graduation!’ is a damning indictment against Richmond County Schools. Handing a diploma to students who had an F in a required class, that was overturned in a second in an email by a teacher under administrative pressure, ruins the purpose of a graduation — to celebrate academic achievement.
No student should propelled through the school system to become a passing statistic. No student should be told they are going to graduate only to have it revoked for no apparent reason. No student should have a failing grade and be informed that, actually, never mind, you get to graduate. No student should have to question the integrity of their classmates ability to graduate.
Nationwide, there has been a failure on the part of school systems, administrators, parents and students to venerate our educational institutions and preserve their integrity.
A third of Richmond County Schools students meet the criteria to be considered “chronically absent.” In the 2021-22 school year, RSHS students missed over 112,000 classes. 141 students who walked at graduation two months ago had more than 50 total period absences. During the 2020-21 school year, over 315 RSHS students missed over 50 days of school, totaling over 200 absences. These horrifying statistics (and yes, they are exponentially worse than pre-COVID statistics) are in part result of the lingering effects of the pandemic; Richmond County is not immune to nationwide trends.
But these statistics have only come to light from the continued reporting of the Daily Journal in the aftermath of COVID. These numbers are not meaningless. We have a wealth of students who are completely checked out of their education.
In our consistent presence at Richmond County Board of Education meetings, it’s absurd that post-COVID chronic student absenteeism and attendance has never been brought up, apart from a brief comment by Cory Satterfield about attendance at a June meeting. We can not attempt to find a solution to the absenteeism problem if it is verboten. Quite frankly, this may be a problem beyond the scope of the school system, that really requires due diligence from parents and students to do their part. Still, the Daily Journal encourages our school board members to find pathways to at least first, openly discuss this issue, and second, start forming solutions.
We would like to address two common criticisms of the article we’ve seen online.
Yes, the article was published a few hours before Homecoming. While it is always the goal of a newspaper to publish an article as soon as possible, a story such as this does take time to develop and complete, sometimes months. Last Friday was the first opportunity that we confirmed a few final on-the-record details, and we did not wish to delay the story any longer. Our goal is never to overshadow community events, but we also can’t delay stories due to any perceived conflict. The newsworthiness of this story trumps any of those concerns.
Second, a criticism of the news media at large is that we only write ‘negative’ news. One of the joys in writing for a small-town community newspaper is the opportunity to talk to everyday people, and I believe our paper does a great job of reflecting some of the best people, actions and events going on in Richmond County. Our job is not wrote about good news or bad news, or try to be ‘divisive’ — it’s simply to write news as accurately as an reflection of unfolding news and events. If an article is ‘divisive,’ that’s rarely at the fault of the newspaper if it’s an accurate retelling of events, information and quotes — the events surrounding the 2023 Raider graduation as documented by students, parents and school staff on social media — are certainly newsworthy. If the retelling of accurate information is ‘divisive,’ then that is at no fault of the media.
Sycophancy can be dangerous, and simply bloviating about Raider magic isn’t going to solve a key question that remains unanswered — why was a, by all accounts, outstanding and highly recognized RSHS teacher (“once a Quick kid, always a Quick kid”) intimidated, harassed and kept in the dark about her students? Why were about 20 students informed of their newfound graduation status hours before the ceremony? How is such an ad hoc situation in the best interest of those students? Of all students at RSHS?
If the Teacher of the Year will get railroaded by administration when she asks honest, good faith questions, how does that bode well for the teachers in our school system, and most importantly, our students? How were our students positively impacted by some of the administrative decisions in June of 2023?
As of right now, there have been no satisfactory answers provided by either Principal Jim Butler, Richmond County Schools, or the Board of Education for why the 2023 Raider graduation unfolded the way it did. If there are any questions pertaining to the accuracy of the story, it has not been conveyed to the Daily Journal via Richmond County Schools at this time and we have full faith in the total accuracy of the story. The Daily Journal believes that there need to be answers to the questions created and posed in the original article and this column.
Richmond County Schools has been, currently is, and will continue to reflect the best of what Richmond County has to offer. We do not wish for our article to act as a bludgeon against our school system, or an indictment against previous wrongs, but it can serves a valuable inflection point that we can strive to do better moving forward from.
We have 12 years to mold students into model citizens capable of pursuing their dreams and making a difference in the world. Ideally, we cultivate an environment where students don’t want to leave our small town and continue to carry on the legacies and traditions that make Richmond County a great place to live. We can do that, but it’s going to take a renewed commitment to the value of being physically at school, present and committed to the learning process. We do have great teachers and administrators in Richmond County, but they are of no use if the halls are empty.