First active teacher to serve on Atlanta Board of Education reflects on the memory of his son

Alfred "Shivy" Brooks campaigns across the street from a polling site at Neighborhood Church on McClendon Avenue in NE Atlanta on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. Brooks beat the incumbent Tamara Jones in a landslide in the Atlanta School Board At-Large Seat 7 race. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)

Clayton County high school teacher Alfred “Shivy” Brooks has been sworn in to his District 7 seat on the Atlanta Board of Education, and he makes history as the first active teacher on the board in its 150-year history. 

Brooks is an economics and government teacher at Charles Drew High School. He beat incumbent Tamara Jones in the race for the At-Large District 7 seat with 65% of the vote, gaining 9,002 votes total in a December runoff election.

Brooks’ passion to serve is fueled by many things, but mainly the memory of his late 16-year-old son Bryce, who drowned shortly before he launched his campaign. Bryce drowned while saving four children who were being pulled out to sea in the Gulf Coast.