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I have been paying close attention in the past year to the Liberty County School System. During my employment this last year I have had the opportunity to meet many teachers and administration of both the schools and the alternative school, Ombudsman. I have been deeply disturbed by things I have witnessed and heard about.

For those that do not know the Ombudsman School is an alternative school for at risk youth in danger of not graduating in the middle and high school that for behavioral reasons have been "punished" by the Liberty County School System. In some instances the infractions are quite severe and violent. In these instances you can understand the need to separate these children from the classroom for the safety of other children and faculty. In other cases I know of it is the worst possible decision that could be made to send the child to the alternative school.

Have you ever been driving around Hinesville during your lunch break and noticed groups of kids walking around town or loitering in the parking lots of some establishments? If you are like I am you think to yourself, "Why are those kids not in school?" Well the reason is because Liberty County has "punished" these kids by sending them to Ombudsman. A school day at Ombudsman consists of three hours a day. In these three hours the child is sat in front of a computer, to work on a program. The problem with this is that for the rest of the day, most of these kids are on their own. Free to do whatever they want to do. Where is the punishment in this? Most of the kids want to be at school as little time as possible. Not too smart in detering bad behavior. For most of these kids leaving them with that much free time with no supervision is the worst thing that can be done. Forget the argument that the parents should do more to watch their kids. If they cared most wouldn't be in the school in the first place. As a community, we can care or not. If we dont care expect to see alot of these kids robbing homes, in gangs, murdering and assaulting citizens of this community. I know their stories, and it is inevitable. These children receive no counseling while at this school. They are not put there for that. The Ombudsman School is another check mark in a file or an IEP of a student so that Liberty County can say "Hey we did all we could for this student." It successfully gets them around the No Child Left Behind Act, same as labeling a behavioral student with a disability such as ADD or ADHD. If the school system can make a child look disabled enough, the child does not have to meet minimum standards for progress in standardized tests and so on. A high school diploma is not a goal for these students. A certificate of attendance is. That happens alot in Liberty County. I have met many children in Liberty County that have been labeled with a learning disability, that technically is nothing more than a behavoiral issue. They can learn and excel, and the school system is failing these kids miserably.


There is no traditional "teaching" at the Ombudsman School. Teaching Certification is not a requirement. There are people there to monitor attendance and behavior. If the students have a question (I have been witness to this)many times I have seen the "teacher" not be able to come up with the correct answer. I have walked into the school next to the UPS Store and have seen EVERY student sleeping and the "teachers" gathered around a desk drinking coffee and socializing. The kids that need the most help and structure are receiving the least. The one dedicated teacher I saw at the Ombudsman school was reprimanded for spending too much time actually teaching these students math formulas and English lessons. He has told me children coming there that are fifteen and older are reading on a second and third grade level. They have no skills in math and dont know basic multiplication and division, Tell me this. If these kids can not at least read and write how are they going to obtain and maintain employment anywhere. Keep in mind these are sophmores and juniors and seniors coming to Ombudsman and they can not read. What has the school system been doing for the last ten years of these kids lives? How were they promoted to the next level? Who dropped the ball? For disagreeing with the Ombudsman way of educating our children in the community, this teacher was not offered another contract. From the interaction I saw between the students and this teacher, these students will be the ones to pay for this decision.

Most worrisome about the Ombudsman school is the fact that if these children complete this program they are issued a diploma equivalent to a high school diploma. The only difference is that the diploma is from Illinois instead of Liberty County. They are then sent out to the world. Extremely unprepared for employment or society. The community will now have to deal with them. We will pay our taxes to house them in our jails, or keep them on our welfare rolls. Enrollment in the Ombudsman school is climbing. We must ask the school system WHY? Stop shuffling these kids out to get rid of the headache. The school system is setting the community up for very rough times in the future for dropping the ball on these kids. Like I said earlier we can leave it up for their parents to deal with but that hasnt done much for them up to now. We can either deal with it or not. Be ready for the consequences that will come along with a not my problem attitude.