Early College students appear in crime reports

During the 2009-10 academic year, students enrolled in the Georgia College Early College program at GCSU have repeatedly appeared in Public Safety reports and have come under scrutiny because of it. Most cases are minor and are resolved in-house but some instances are more severe, such as bringing a weapon on campus, attempted theft, and the distribution of drugs requiring the attention of the State Juvenile Department.

“It is a very, very, very small portion of the students that have disciplinary problems,” said principal of Early College, Camille Daniel-Tyson. “It’s been devastating to see these kids cast in this light.”

Upon admission to the program, students are considered to be GCSU students and are given full access to all the facilities a normal undergraduate student would be given along with a school ID.

“The biggest misconception is that these kids are perfect kids,” Daniel-Tyson said. “They’re still middle school students and high school students. They’re on a huge campus and they’re just little bodies. The eyes are always on them.”

According to the Public Safety reports, most of the problems occur between the Early College students and not with the rest of the campus.

“I would say there has been a definite increase since last year,” Assitant Vice President for Public Safety Dave Groseclose said.

The GCEC program’s mission is to construct a community of respect that inspires and facilitates deep and meaningful learning for all. The program began in the fall of 2006 with the enrollment of 53 students. This year 220 Early College students are enrolled on campus.

“We respond to calls and we send officers out there to assist in any way we can,” Groseclose said. “We’ve had to escort kids off campus before.”

The majority of issues that arise are dealt within the Early College program.

“If we get involved, we always refer them to the juvenile court system of Baldwin County,” Sgt. Greg Williams said. “If they end up going to juvenile court, they’re usually released in a couple days to their parents if they don’t have a record.”

Despite the small amount of students causing problems in the school, there are exponentially more positive examples that come out of the program.

“We have a young lady there who has had a very difficult life,” Daniel-Tyson said. “It was not uncommon for her to miss 30 days of school a year before she came to Early College. Now she doesn’t miss any. If the world will give her room to grow, she’ll be the next Alice Walker.”

The interaction between the Early College students and the rest of campus allows for these developments to happen.

“I think the greatest strength of Early College is that they are among the college students,” Daniel-Tyson said. “Most college students don’t realize the importance of being on campus along side them. They don’t realize their mentors to those kids.”

Early College is for Baldwin County and Putnam County students in the 7th through 12th grades. It allows the accepted students the opportunity to complete up to 60 college credit hours when the graduate 12th grade and helps in making students eligible for the HOPE Scholarship.

“They’re the greatest kids,” Daniel-Tyson said. “If we don’t have anything in that program except the belief in those kids, we’ll be fine.”

Posted by Lissa Speer on Apr 9 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry