C R O W S S U P D R O E L Z Z CHALLENGES

school boards and challenging school board elections.

“My belief is we as adults can work through our di erences and we need to model that for our students,” he continued. “We have kind of lost that in our country. We can’t agree to disagree anymore. We must argue and oftentimes get to a personal level. My hope is that we can model for our children that adults can disagree but in the end, we will unify around what’s best for them and work through our di erences.”

In the Elizabeth School District, tensions have boiled over regarding curriculum such as critical race theory and social-emotional learning.

Critical race theory, or CRT, has exploded as a political debate, especially in K-12 education, over the last few years. Around the nation, some lawmakers have introduced bills to ban CRT curriculum in classrooms.

Proponents of CRT have said it has value because it teaches the history of racism in America. ose against it say it paints white people as racist and is not factual.

While the topic of CRT has become a hot-button issue in recent years, it is not new. CRT, developed in the 1980s, is a graduate-level academic program that focuses on the idea that race is a social construct and racism is part of the country’s legal system and policies.

While the entire Elizabeth School District board was against CRT, and the generally conservative Elbert County has voiced opposition to the curriculum, disorder driven by fear of CRT has engulfed the district, with outgoing board members calling the public comment portion of meetings “chaos” and the constant emails about the unwanted curriculum overwhelming.

Social-emotional learning, or SEL, promotes student social, emotional and academic success. Proponents of SEL say it addresses not just academics, but also a student’s emotional and mental health.

Opponents of SEL say this should not be taught in a classroom by teachers, instead, it should be solely left up to therapists and parents.

For Snowberger, SEL is not so black and white.

“I know there has been some outcry in this community about social and emotional learning and that it is conditioning our kids,” he said. “I can assure in this community that social-emotional learning is helping our kids through crisis, so they don’t become a danger to other students in the classroom.

“ at’s the intent of social-emotional learning to me is making sure we have professionally trained sta to work with students in crisis. And, yes, in a small community like this there are children in crisis.”

School safety

Monitoring student behavior and needs is a reality today’s educators must face. As school shootings and violence continue around the nation, Snowberger said even small districts must be cautious.

“ at’s de nitely a scary part of being an educator today,” he said. “Society does not stay outside of our schools. Society comes into our schools. Sadly, we see that happening in movie theaters, grocery stores and public places across our country. We hyper focus on them when they happen in schools. e key is if we are focused on our kids, and we build relationships with our community and students, we are in a much better position to prevent it from happening.”

Safe2Tell, an anonymous reporting platform, is a good tool, Snowberger said. He has a special ring tone set to alert him when a Safe2Tell lead comes through, Snowberger said every report must be taken seriously.

“Working to build the relationship between community and students helps. Every school shooting, there is typically somebody that knew something,” he said. “We need to encourage them to speak up when they have information.”

Besides encouraging tips about students who might be in crisis, Snowberger said he also hopes the community talks with him more directly, discouraging online and social media discussions. Instead, he said emails and phone calls are always welcome from students, sta and the community.

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