19 FEB 09: Suddenly No Susan

Columbus High School students dealt with their second surprise in as many days Wednesday. For some of them, they had to be heartbreaking. But for others, they probably are no big deal - you know, the ones who are focused on the start of baseball season.

The first surprise came at Tuesday night's Muscogee County School Board, when Columbus High Principal Susan Bryant announced she would leave at the end of next week. If you didn't know better, you might think Bryant was joining Phyllis Jones from Rigdon Road Elementary on a "Ya-Ya Sisterhood" retirement tour.

But then came Wednesday, and the second surprise. Susan Bryant has lost her educator's certificate for a year, in a settlement with the Georgia Professional Standards Commission. It's nice to know a high school principal can make a deal like this. I doubt any of the Valley High School basketball players will have that privilege.

The Georgia Professional Standards Commission actually announced its decision on Susan Bryant last week. But to look at the minutes of the Commission's meetings, you would never know her case was scheduled. Matters are listed by case numbers, not names or even school districts. This has all the "transparency" of a bottle of black cherry soda.

The investigative report on Susan Bryant never even mentions her name. It only refers to her as a "high school principal." I suppose this is done to avoid any appearance of bias. But it can make cases nearly impossible for parents to follow, unless they have a case number. At least they could put the number on a board, and have the teacher pose for a mug shot.

The investigative report revealed someone complained to Susan Bryant as far back as 1998, about "sexual misconduct" involving male teachers at Columbus High School. One teacher was found sharing lunch with a female student in a classroom, and once "their ankles were touching." Only one small step away from a dangerous game of footsie....

The Georgia Professional Standards Commission report confirms Columbus Police once obtained a warrant to arrest Susan Bryant, for not reporting improper sexual contact by a teacher. But she escaped arrest, because the statute of limitations for the charge had expired. Bryant apparently ran out the clock better than Columbus High football teams did.

But the Georgia Professional Standards Commission found two violations by Susan Bryant, and that led to the one-year suspension of her teaching certificate. We don't know what Bryant plans to do in the coming year. Is Dr. John Phillips hiring any staff members for his educational consulting business?

While that issue appears to be settled, there's no word of a decision yet in the ethics investigation of Phyllis Jones. I probably should call Atlanta and ask about her case number. The Susan Bryant case shows when it comes to Georgia government, that's about the only way you can keep up with the Joneses.

BLOG UPDATE: Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? I couldn't find it on my over-the-air TV set Wednesday. And.... well, uhhh.... it's not like I actually wanted to watch Sesame Street. I'm among those who think Guy Smiley really is everybody's favorite game show host, but....

But anyway: GPB made its "Big Switch" to digital television around midnight Tuesday night. WJSP-TV's engineers actually did it at about 11:58 p.m., before Ray Charles could sing "Georgia on My Mind" one last time in analog. It's like some of the staff members are Alabama natives or something.

Trouble is, in my corner of Columbus the switch meant no public television at all. If WJSP really is operating at a higher digital power from Warm Springs, should it be visible 35 miles away where I live? Back in the analog days, the signal was hit-and-miss at times -- and you can't hit the TV set when it's missing anymore.

"Scan, scan and re-scan," advised the GPB web site Wednesday. I did, did and did it again. But it was all without success. So today's episode of "Sesame Street" should be brought to you by the letter D - as in digital, and disappeared.

So we had to go to other media sources to find these Wednesday stories....

+ Severe weather moved across the Columbus area, with several tornado warnings. The rainstorms came in spurts at my house, and their timing was superb for me -- rain at four, run at five.

+ Harris County Sheriff Mike Jolley told WRBL he wants all video gambling games banned. Jolley says the games can be addictive -- but he admits according to some convenience store owners, few people play them. So it would be a bit like banning fruit juice sales in those stores....

+ Phenix City Central advanced in the Alabama boys' basketball playoffs by downing Daphne 47-45. The Daphne men wore not only purple uniforms, but purple-tinted hair. Not even Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers has to resort to that.

+ Roundball Night in Dixieland (tm) saw Auburn ambush Georgia 71-59. The Tigers jumped out to a 38-9 first-half lead. But the Bulldogs rallied to within five in the second half -- almost as if Tommy Tuberville had taken a seat on the Auburn bench.

SCHEDULED FRIDAY: A day of e-mail catch-up....

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