Butch Mosely: GCAPS turned into political football

ALBANY — A high-ranking Dougherty County School System official said after Monday’s Dougherty County Commission meeting that commissioners’ efforts to turn a student civics program into a “political football” threatened the future of the program.

DCSS Superintendent Butch Mosely said the County Commission’s decision to table a vote on changes to policies guiding the Georgia Civic Awareness Program for Students offered the wrong kind of example for students in the local system.

“This program should be a learning opportunity,” Mosely said. “But it appears that some on the commission want to hold our kids hostage. It’s the adults in this who should be setting the example.”

Mosely’s comments came after county commissioners, expressing concern that new policies suggested by staff gave much of the oversight of the GCAPS program to officials within the school system, voted 4-3 Monday to table a planned vote on the program. Clinton Johnson, John Hayes, Anthony Jones and Harry James voted to table the matter.

It was James who objected openly to making school system employees Sonya Spillers and J.D. Sumner the student coordinators with oversight of the GCAPS program, which was designed by the Association County Commissioners of Georgia to address the need for increased civic involvement and awareness among Georgia’s youths. James objected to giving the school system “control over our program.”

County and school system officials sought to change policies guiding the program after Hayes and Assistant County Administrator Mike McCoy became embroiled in an altercation during a GCAPS trip to Savannah earlier this year. McCoy said Hayes “physically and verbally assaulted” him and filed a police report against Hayes after their altercation at a Savannah hotel.

McCoy eventually filed notice of plans to sue the county government for creating a hostile work environment.

Students also complained to school officials that they’d witnessed “uncomfortable adult situations” being played out among Hayes, James and unnamed school system officials during another GCAPS field trip to the nation’s capital.

Mosely stopped short of saying the system might sever its ties with the GCAPS program.

“I don’t want to do that because the ones who would be hurt are the children,” the school superintendent said. “GCAPS has the potential to be a beneficial program with the right kind of adult supervision in place. It’s just disappointing that we can’t move forward with this. We had training planned for the weekend that we had to cancel because of the commission vote.

“When parents see their kids being treated this way by adults, they fuss at us in the school system. Unfortunately, what’s happened is some have turned this kids’ program into a political issue, something it should never be.”