Swaying and shimmying to exultant tunes, hundreds of Cobb students packed the Kennesaw Mountain High School gym Tuesday morning for the district’s dance for students with special needs.
The annual affair brings together students from across the district, who left it all on the dance floor as they were joined by Kennesaw Mountain athletes and student volunteers. Indeed, students were welcomed to the festivities with a procession of high-fives from teachers and staff, entering to cheers through a festooned archway at the gym’s door. There, they danced the morning away to such favorites as “Dancing Queen” and “Party in the U.S.A.”
Kennesaw Mountain High has hosted the dance since 2001, and this year’s theme was “Once Upon a Time at the Mountain.” Amory Brown, a junior, was one of the student organizers of the event and told the MDJ she was honored to help carry on a tradition that goes back more than 20 years. Students were able to show off their moves in a variety of ways. Some spun doughnuts in their wheelchairs, while others leapt up and down in joy as their favorite songs came on. Felicia Vuu, another student organizer, called the event “surreal” after working on it for months. She told the MDJ she wanted people to take away the message that students should be treated with respect.
Two bills which seek to thwart the Cobb County Board of Commissioners’ effort to draw its own district map have stalled in the state legislature.
Senate bills 124 and 236, sponsored by state Sen. Ed Setzler of Acworth, had been slated for floor votes on Monday — Crossover Day, a crucial legislative deadline during the legislative session. Neither bill received a vote, however.
Setzler told the MDJ Tuesday his legislation was close to getting a vote before the Senate adjourned. Setzler said he hoped the home rule bills might survive in some fashion, saying there are related bills under consideration at the Capitol that his language could be attached to. SB 124 would explicitly prohibit Georgia counties from drawing their own district lines, something the Democratic majority on the Cobb commission has sought to do. SB 236, meanwhile, mirrors the map signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp last year, which drew Democratic Commissioner Jerica Richardson out of her seat.
The Cobb commission last fall passed a pair of resolutions amending the Kemp map, in an untested use of the county’s home rule powers. The county’s map, using one drawn by former state Representative Erick Allen a Democrat from Smyrna, would keep Richardson in her seat. Setzler has until March 29, the end of the session, to try and attach his language onto another bill.
In an email to parents at Lockheed Elementary School on Tuesday, Marietta City Schools Superintendent Grant Rivera said a teacher “was alleged to have attempted to inappropriately restrain a student during recess.” Rivera said this incident was reported to school administration who immediately initiated the investigation and engaged the proper authorities. Rivera also said the district is supporting the students in this particular class and is in direct communication with their families. Rivera added that parents with any concerns should feel free to reach out to Lockheed Elementary Principal Coretta Stewart or their child’s teacher or counselor.
When the Mount Paran Christian girls face Banks County for the Class AA state championship this afternoon, the squad that takes the floor of the Macon Coliseum will not resemble the one that won the Class A Private title a year ago.
That team was dominated by seniors. This group is made up of four freshmen, seven sophomores and one junior.
But while the team is young, coach Stephanie Dunn said those seniors made sure this team is up for the challenge.
Mount Paran has not missed a beat. It rolled through Region 6AA play undefeated, bolstered by a non-region schedule highlighted with games against competition from higher classifications. The Eagles faced Class AAAA Hardaway, Class AAAAAA Woodward Academy and Forest Park, and Class AAAAAAA Collins Hill and Brookwood. It will take a complete team effort for Mount Paran to upend Banks County and win the program’s second straight state title. The Leopards (28-3) are making their first appearance in the state championship game and present a defensive challenge for the Eagles, as they are loaded with juniors and seniors who are used to winning.
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that state Representative Ginny Ehrhart, a Republican from west Cobb, must cease blocking and removing the comments of opponents on her official Facebook page.
The ruling from Judge J.P. Boulee found Ehrhart violated the First Amendment in blocking Thomas Biedermann, an Atlanta man whose comments were removed from Ehrhart’s page in 2019.
Biedermann at the time — using a pseudonym on Facebook — had criticized Ehrhart’s proposal to make it a felony for Georgia doctors to help a minor medically transition their gender. He filed suit after that comment, and several others, were removed from Ehrhart’s page. Ehrhart previously told the MDJ Biedermann had harassed other Facebook users and violated her page’s content standards.
Biedermann, Judge Boulee noted in his order, was one of dozens whose accounts were blocked and comments were removed by Ehrhart — a contingent united under the banner of #BlockedByGinny. Judge Boulee found the First Amendment infringements outweighed any potential damage from unblocking the commenters. He ordered Ehrhart to “cease unconstitutional viewpoint-based blocking and removal of (Biedermann’s) expressive activity on the official Facebook page and to rescind her ban on Plaintiff’s access to the official Facebook page.” Representative Ehrhart said that her office is examining their next steps.
The Marietta-based Atlanta Lyric Theatre, which put on Broadway-style musicals for 42 years, has closed its doors, it announced Tuesday.
In a message posted to the Lyric’s website, Monica Gwinn and Patti Schoettler, co-chairs of the theater’s board, said a steep decline in attendance since the COVID-19 pandemic began has strained the group’s financial resources to the point of making its continued operation unsustainable. The Lyric will also be unable to refund tickets for its 42nd season, Gwinn and Schoettler said, though the theater will write acknowledgement letters for the value of patrons’ unused tickets and donations they made this year. The Atlanta Lyric Theatre most recently staged its productions at the Jennie T. Anderson Theatre at the Cobb County Civic Center.
In their message announcing the end of the Lyric’s run, co-chairs of the board also thanked the theater’s staff, praising “their attempts to adjust to the Lyric’s new reality.”
They also thanked the Lyric’s subscribers and donors for their support of the theater.
#CobbCounty #Marietta #LocalNews
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