Latest statement from schools on bathroom policy

       The Creative Writing Contest for Youth is now in full swing. The competition put on by the Sassafras Literary Exchange is in its 38th year. It is designed for students from grade six through 12 who live in and are educated in Pickens County. It matters not whether these students are in Public schools or in an alternate study program, they are eligible to enter.

There are three categories in the high school and also three for the middle grades. Those categories are fiction, non-fiction and poetry. There is a maximum limit of 1,500 words in the fiction and non-fiction categories with a 50 line limit for poetry. The deadline for entries is Friday, November 1st.

     Pickens Schools Supt. Dr. Carlton Wilson at a heated meeting on transgender students. The town hall forum drew a large and passionate crowd. Due to safety concerns, including death threats, student harassment, and vandalism, the district has announced they will return to bathroom procedures that were in place at the beginning of this school year until they can address safety issues. 

        Roughly 850 people turned outfor a tense town hall meeting regarding transgender bathrooms in Pickens schools, a topic that has caused public uproar and division in Pickens County over the last week.  

No issue in recent history has captured the attention of local residents as strongly as this has. The town hall meeting, which was standing room only at one of the county’s largest venues, was the biggest anyone could recall in many years. The issue has aroused much anger and confusion, spurring on death threats to top school officials.    

In anticipation of a tense meeting, enflamed by heated social media posts and comments leading up to the event, the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office had over 20 deputies on duty at the Pickens High School Performing Art Center Monday, Oct. 14. 

       See full story in this week's print or online editions. 

     Does Pickens County have haunted places? Ghost sightings? Unexplained occurences? Please share your recollections. We are looking for any scary tales of places or events in this county to publish. We seek established legends, firsthand experiences or local folk tales - not new fiction. The Progress may follow up with longer accounts of some of the best. As many as possible will be printed - that is, if we get some good ones. The staff of the newspaper did not know of any bona fide ghost stories from this county, please enlighten us if you do. Call to discuss futher @ 706-253-2457. 

     Deadline for submissions is Friday, Oct. 25 at noon. Submissions must be 500 words or less. Email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Two two winners will receive a $20 gift certificate to Smokin' Mo's. 

      State Rep. Rick Jasperse (l) addresses Superintendent Carlton Wilson. Jasperse asked the school board to re-open the always contentious topic of tax exemptions for seniors, just one of the highly-charged subjects that came up during the called meeting Friday.

In the normally staid world of school board discussions, it’s fair to say that Friday’s called meeting featured one bombshell after another, including drastic changes to the calendar, moving graduation ceremonies to evenings, arming staff members, shortening the elementary school day and re-opening the always contentious senior tax exemption debate, with a little beef between the board chair and superintendent thrown into the mix.

The board did not take any action, but it looked like a decision on changing graduation times was coming soon and they are scheduled to see a policy for arming staff presented at their regular meeting this week. Here are the highlights of the meeting which ran all morning at the central office.

        See full story in this week's print or online editions.