Senior Amy Kamagate poses for a photo on March 8. Kamagate believes the Clarke Central High School community has a way to go in achieving equality for all students. “On the outside looking in, it looks like things are going well, but really the students know that it’s not very equal all the time,” Kamagate said. Photo by Ana Aldridge
The Clarke Central High School Administrative Team will host community panelists on March 18 to discuss equity in Athens.
The Teacher Planning Day on March 18 will be kicked off with an Equity Town Hall session held in the Clarke Central High School Media Center from 9-11 a.m. According to Principal’s Secretary LaToya Hill, the event will host panelists who will share insight on equity in the school system.
The scheduled panelists are former CCHS Principal Dr. Maxine Easom, DeKalb County School District Superintendent Michael Thurmond and community activist Barbara Barnett.
Easom and Barnett both graduated from Athens High School in the 1960s during segregation and Thurmond graduated from CCHS, a newly integrated school, in 1971.
“The conversation of course is how we can be more equitable in services that are provided to students and opportunities,” Hill said. “(The) three panelists (will be) talking about where we’ve been, how far we’ve come and then the things that we need to do to still improve.
The Equity Town Hall session will begin with the speakers giving their backgrounds, and they will then answer questions.
“There will be questions asked of the panelists and they’ll get those ahead of time so they’ll be able to think about their responses. Teachers and administrators (are writing the questions),” Hill said.
Senior Amy Kamagate feels that it is important for the CCHS staff members to make efforts like the panel to become more equitable to students.
“I was talking about this one time with a teacher. I was saying that a lot of the times it seems like teachers don’t always get to know their students really well and I feel like that’s what causes the inequity sometimes, like not being able to really know your students, so I hope that maybe someone on the panel will bring that up,” Kamagate said. “I think it’s pretty essential to have that happen.”
