COMMUNITY
WELLNESS
SCENE
Workers have started planting trees and shrubs along interstate ramps in South DeKalb, but judging by the plants’ sizes, it may take awhile to enjoy them. 2
A late crush of people signing up for the Affordable Care Act has led the government to extend the registration deadline. 6
Maurice Hines, brother of Gregory Hines, will celebrate his tapdancing sibling’s life with song, stories and dance at the Alliance Theatre. 9
Small-scale plantings
Extension for ACA sign-up
A brother’s loving tribute
EAST ATLANTA • DECATUR • STONE MOUNTAIN • LITHONIA • AVONDALE ESTATES • CLARKSTON • ELLENWOOD • PINE LAKE • REDAN • SCOTTDALE • TUCKER
Copyright © 2014 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
March 29, 2014
Volume 19, Number 48
www.crossroadsnews.com
Bill allows for temporary commissioner for District 5 seat By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Residents of DeKalb Commission District 5 could soon have a commissioner to represent them again. The district of 145,000 voters has been without full representation on the DeKalb Board of Commissioners since July 16, 2013. That was when Commissioner Lee May was appointed interim Lee May CEO by Gov. Nathan Deal in the wake of CEO Burrell Ellis’ indictment on corruption and racketeering charges. On March 20, the final day of the 2014
legislative session, state Sen. Fran Millar and state Rep. Stacey Abrams succeeded in bringing legislative relief for the voters with the passage of Senate Bill 316. Millar said he was able to attach the section dealing with the Commission District 5 situation from a failed bill to SB 367, which passed. The section provides for the nomination of a temporary commissioner to fill the seat. “I believe that people ought to be represented on day-to-day matters,” he said. “Now they will be, thanks to me and state Rep. Stacey Abrams.” Millar said that Abrams approached him about the situation and they worked together
“I believe that people ought to be represented on day-to-day matters. Now they will be, thanks to me and state Rep. Stacey Abrams.” Fran Millar
as the suspension of the public official is terminated or the end of such member’s current term.” The section was moved over from Senate Bill 95, which failed to pass. SB 95 also sought to make the office of DeKalb CEO a nonpartisan office. Senate Bill 367 also changed the eligibility criteria for members of the Atlanta Regional Commission so that a member can now be “the president or presiding officer of the legislative body of the most populous municipality lying within the area chosen by majority vote of the members of the legislative body.”
to get it through. The bill provides for a commissioner who is tapped to fill the position of a suspended CEO to nominate three qualified people from whom the DeKalb Board of Commissioners can “select a temporary replacement to fill” the member’s seat “until such time Please see DISTRICT 5, page 3
Family calls for end to violence at Salem Middle Grandparents Rhonda and Odis Ferguson picket their Lithonia schoo on March 24 to protest attack on their grandson Justice Ferguson.
Grandson, 11, gets concussion in school attack By Ken Watts
Rhonda and Odis Ferguson were shocked when they arrived at Salem Middle School on March 14 to pick up their grandson Justice Ferguson. “His face and his eye were pretty swollen,” Rhonda Ferguson said. “His eye was bloodshot red.” Ferguson said the 11-year-old was knocked Justice Ferguson unconscious in an unprovoked attack, called the “knockout game,” at the school. “It’s when pranksters sneak up on unsuspecting individuals and punch them in the face or head,” she said. Ferguson said Justice was waiting for a bus at the Lithonia school when an older, bigger boy, egged on by three other boys, came up behind him and punched him hard in the left eye. DeKalb School District officials acknowledge the incident but say Justice was not knocked unconscious. “They called me and said, ‘Come and get him,’” Ferguson said Monday. At DeKalb Medical where Justice was treated, Ferguson said she was told that he had a contusion. “I took him to his pediatrician and she said it was a concussion and swelling of the brain,” she said. Ten days later, Ferguson said Justice still has dizziness, changes in his vision and nervousness. He returned to class Monday and Tuesday this week, but because of his symptoms, his grandparents say they kept him home the rest of the week. “It’s like he has post-traumatic stress disorder from being jumped like that,” Ferguson said.
Ken Watts / CrossRoadsNews
Ferguson and her husband have been married for 18 years. They are raising their stepson’s children Justice and his 13-year-old brother, Christopher, who also attends Salem Middle School. On March 24, the Fergusons stood on Salem Road across from the Lithonia school from 8 to 10:30 a.m. and from 3:30 to 5 in the afternoon in protest against the violence that injured their grandson. They carried signs with “Help stop the violence in our schools” and “Save our schools with prayer” on Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week. They plan to continue the protest on the same days next week.
They said they were protesting because school administrators have not cracked down effectively on violent behavior at the school. Their demonstration drew supportive honks from passing motorists on their way to work. The Fergusons say their grandsons also have told them it’s dangerous to use the school’s restrooms. “In there is a group of boys, I don’t know how they get to do this, but they hang out in the restrooms and challenge students to fight for 15 seconds,” she said. “Kids get their heads busted, hit up against sinks, everything.”
Ferguson said both of her grandsons have been approached to go 15 seconds. “I don’t know why the teachers aren’t monitoring the bathrooms and kicking kids out of the halls when they don’t belong there,” she said. Odis Ferguson, 64, a disabled Vietnam veteran and retired FedEx employee, said Salem Middle principal Shelia Johnson-Reese downplayed the attack on their grandson. “She said, ‘You know how boys are,’ ” he said. “And I said that’s not about being a boy. That’s about being a bully.” Please see ATTACK, page 4