OPINION: 'Say Something' assemblies exposed a lot of hurt in JMCSS

The Jackson-Madison County School Board had their monthly work session Tuesday night.

One of the items on the agenda was a presentation and recap from Garry Martin of the Say Something series of assemblies that happened during a week in all middle and high schools in JMCSS last month.

Martin, who is the pastor of the Jackson First Assembly church, played a montage of videos from his phone of students responding to the assemblies that addressed suicide, bullying and trafficking.

The suicide and bullying really hit home for a lot of the students and some of the adults in the room each time.

The response after each assembly was when the students were given a chance to approach a roll of paper that was spread out over the gym floor, and each student was asked to write their response to the assembly on the paper.

"Help me."

"I've attempted suicide."

"I've been sexually assaulted."

"I'm abused at home."

These messages or something like them were among those written on the paper.

As Martin began to conclude his presentation, he brought up a question he was asked at the end of that week by myself and probably others he talked to.

"What now?"

Martin didn't have an answer, and board member Debbie Gaugh asked him what he specifically was asking for.

So many emotional band-aids were ripped off.

But possibly more important is so many eyes were opened.

I'm not a teacher, but I've got a few friends that are teachers in the district.

I've heard plenty of emotional stories about students wanting to be at school to get away from the negative aspects of their home like hunger, abuse or lack of resources like electricity and/or running water.

In a district of 13,000 students and a county of 100,000 people, it's easy to assume that somewhere there's verbal, physical, mental, emotional and sexual abuse going on in the county.

But it wouldn't shock me if most if not all adults in the room for these assemblies who saw these written responses underestimated how many children are victims of these - particularly the physical and sexual abuse.

Martin was asking for access to be able to counsel students. Not necessarily in a situation where students are forced to be in a face-to-face situation with a local pastor, but to be allowed to be available for any student who might want to discuss his or her situation with that faith leader.

He was under the impression that pastors aren't allowed in school buildings, but board member Pete Johnson said he knows pastors who are able to go into schools. Deputy superintendent Ricky Catlett said when he was a principal, he had multiple pastors come and be available for students the way Martin has asked for (I can confirm this personally because my dad came to Jackson for three years to pastor a church, and he was one that came in while Catlett was at North Side).

And for those wanting to scream about separation of church and state and prayer being banned from schools ... that separation is meant to ensure that no one can force their religion on someone else. It doesn't outlaw a child coming to a pastor for prayer. And prayer hasn't been banned from schools. Just prayer forced on everyone by the school. If you want prayer taken out of school, then remove tests, quizzes, grading, etc. 

So now that's been figured out, Marlon King and his leadership staff were onto something during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when they began making adjustments and plans to serve the whole student and not just educate their mind.

I don't have the answers, but I imagine if King put a team together of his people who care about children's well-being the most and placed them in a room with Martin and a few other faith leaders from different denominations and even religions, they could at least figure out the beginning or concepts of a plan.

JMCSS has to start somewhere, and they're already fighting so many wars on so many fronts.

This may wind up being among the biggest and most important, though.

Brandon Shields is the managing editor of The Jackson Post. Reach him through e-mail at brandon@jacksonpost.news. Follow him on X.com @JSEditorBrandon. Follow him on Instagram @EditorBrandon.