DeKalb Officials Announce New After School Program
Martha Dalton/WABE News
DeKalb County officials have responded to a shooting at an elementary school about two weeks ago by forming a new partnership. Thursday, DeKalb church leaders, police, and school officials announced they’re collaborating on a new after school program for students.
Listen to the broadcast version of this story.
About a dozen DeKalb church leaders, county police chief Cedric Alexander, and DeKalb schools chief legal officer Ronald Ramsey announced The Right Choice after school program. Bishop Quincy Carswell, with the Covenant Church in Decatur, says the program will initially target high school boys at risk of dropping out.
“This program will be in partnership with the DeKalb County school system and will help students with academic skills and social skills,” Carswell says.
The clergy in attendance said they hope the program will address social issues, such as crime and violence. Dr. Collette Gunby, a pastor at Green Pastures Christian Ministries in Decatur, says church leaders needed to act.
“We’re helpless,” Gunby says. “We’re helpless to keep crime from happening, to keep a school from being totally destroyed by one person with a lot of ammunition. We must do what I know we are called to do. And that is to step out into the community and embrace the community.”
Officials said they’ll release details in the upcoming weeks.
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