The "Power of Peace" tour is a violence prevention effort by the Clayton County Schools District. The goal is to help students with behavioral challenges resolve conflict without violence. (DorMiya Vance/WABE)
Clayton County Public Schools District is cracking down on student misbehavior in the classroom through a “Power of Peace” tour.
The tour’s goal is to help incoming first-year high school students and other students with behavioral challenges find ways to sort out issues without the use of violence.
CCPS Superintendent Anthony Smith stands before Jonesboro High School students during the “Power of Peace” violence prevention tour. (DorMiya Vance/WABE)
CCPS officials say they’re taking preventative measures by engaging with students who have a history of discipline, such as those involved in fights.
“We’re trying to do is be proactive. Actually pull them in, and give them the information that they need to let them know that we will not tolerate violence moving forward in our district,” said Dr. Maureen Egbuna, Director of CCPS’s Student Discipline, Prevention and Intervention, or DPI, department.
CCPS Student Discipline, Prevention and Intervention Executive Director, Melvin Blocker, speaks before Jonesboro High School students during the “Power of Peace” violence prevention tour. (DorMiya Vance/WABE)
One of the stops on the tour includes Jonesboro High School, where DPI Executive Director Melvin Blocket engaged with a small group of about 20 students.
“We are very serious about students achieving at a high level in Clayton County Public Schools, and it starts with schools being safe,” Blocker said. “When students are violent in school, it creates an unsafe learning environment.”
The “Power of Peace” tour will make a few more stops at high schools around the district. It’ll feature other guest speakers and leaders like Sheriff Levon Allen and District Attorney Tasha Mosley.
Clayton County District Attorney, Tasha Mosley, speaks before Jonesboro High School students during the “Power of Peace” violence prevention tour. (DorMiya Vance/WABE)
Mosely shared a few words with Jonesboro High students during his stop at the school.
“You have an opportunity to change your behavior. Because if you keep on that streak that you’re on right now, you’re gonna come to a dead end …and that’s a choice,” Mosley said to the students.
Former student and member of the Offender Alumni Association, Cayson Robinson, also painted a picture of how violence as a high school freshman impacted him.
“I started out freshman year skipping school. I ended freshman year in metro RYDC,” Robinson said. “So me trying to come back after I did a year in juvenile, trying to get back in high school, it just ain’t work out. So I end up going to prison and stuff like that … doing like nine years, and I’ve been home a year and a half now.”
