Bibb Board of Education Holds Special-Called Meeting to Discuss Discipline

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Bibb County Board of Education held a special-called meeting Monday night to discuss discipline issues within the school district.

The meeting came after a number of safety incidents last week and an audit that showed under-reporting of crimes in schools.

Superintendent Romain Dallemand started the meeting by saying it’s essential that students feel both safe and comfortable in the school setting.

Dallemand’s remarks were followed by a presentation that laid out a new plan for the district called “Operation Enhance School Safety”.  The plan will include monthly searches at middle and high schools in the district, including searches by dogs.  It was made clear the dogs wouldn’t be searching students but only common areas within the schools.

Board member Lynn Farmer says before last year, preventative measures like random searches were being used, but for some reason, stopped last year.

She tells us the new school safety plan, which will take around 18 months to fully implement, isn’t enough to address the issues schools have right now.

“I’m tired of talking about it,” says Farmer.  “I don’t have time for the memorandum of understanding to make things better in a year or over two years, because I’ve got discipline problems today.  I expect to see a tightening up of discipline, I expect to see better communication between the superintendent and the principals and teachers, and I expect that this board, who put their foot down with discipline several years ago, that our wishes will be honored in this area.”

Also during the meeting, Superintendent Dallemand accused the media of falsely reporting that student offenses were being under-reported by school administrators. 

Board member Susan Sipe responded, saying teachers are being told not to send students to the office but to deal with the problems in their own classroom.

Farmer says teachers and principals feel pressure from the central office not to report some student incidents.