COMMUNITY
FORUM
Support for new principal
New digs unveiled
Decatur attorney Mawuli Davis (right) of the high-profile Davis Bozeman Law Firm is representing the family raided by DeKalb Sheriff’s deputies. A2
A recent graduate of Martin Luther King Jr. High says embattled principal Kerby Bullard (right) will bring positive changes to the school. A4
Funeral home owner Gregory Levett Sr., with his wife, Betty, is hosting an open house Sunday at his newly renovated Flat Shoals chapel. A10
Prayers, legal help for family
COMMUNITY
EAST ATLANTA • DECATUR • STONE MOUNTAIN • LITHONIA • AVONDALE ESTATES • CLARKSTON • ELLENWOOD • PINE LAKE • REDAN • SCOTTDALE • TUCKER
Copyright © 2013 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
August 24, 2013
Volume 19, Number 17
www.crossroadsnews.com
Bell ringing to commemorate dream speech anniversary By Ken Watts
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech to 250,000 people on the National Mall on Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every
Bells will ring in Atlanta and around the world at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 28, to mark the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. King delivered the now famous speech to 250,000 people on the National Mall at that hour on Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The King Center and the 50th Anniversary Coalition say the bell-ringing events will commemorate the speech in which King said: “And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Please see KING, page A6
‘God was with us Tuesday’
McNair Discovery Learning Academy students and their parents are reunited after an armed intrusion at the Decatur school. Classes resumed on campus Aug. 22.
Attendance at the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy dropped dramatically in the days after a man with an assault rifle invaded the Decatur school and fired shots. Parents kept 650 of the school’s 820 students home on Aug. 21, the day after the incident, when they were bused to classes at McNair High School. Principal Brian Bolden said 790 kids, or about 96 percent of the students, showed up on Aug. 22 when classes resumed at their school on Second Avenue. DeKalb Schools spokesman Quinn Hudson said the students have adapted quite well in the wake of the Aug. 20 invasion by guntoting Michael Brandon Hill. “Other than being in a different building, it was pretty much business as usual for the kids,” he said. Students who missed school on Wednesday won’t be penalized.
Hudson said that absent kids and staff will be excused. “We will also have co u n s e l o r s o n d u t y through Friday or longer if necessary for anyone who needs them,” he said. The dramatic chain Michael Hill of events began about 1 p.m. on Tuesday when Hill, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and nearly 500 rounds of ammunition, shattered the normal school day for students and staff. He told bookkeeper Antoinette Tuff to call WSB-tv and 911. “He was going to end his life and take everybody with him,” she said. Tuff was able to calm the intruder and prevented him from going into the rest of the school where students were. In the dramatic 911 tape, Tuff can be heard telling the gunman that “we all have situations in our lives.”
By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
“We established a rapport,” she told ABC News on Tuesday. “Eventually, I asked him to lay down his weapon and ammo and lie down on the floor, and he did it.” Police blew up the trunk of Hill’s car, which was parked in front of the school, after a bomb-sniffing dog alerted officers to the possible presence of explosives. After that, police went classroom to classroom alerting teachers. Moments later, students were quickly evacuated out a back door. DeKalb Police Chief Cedric Alexander said officers had to cut a hole in the fence to move the students off campus. Parents were reunited with the children in the parking lot of a Walmart on Gresham Road after hours of tension and uncertainty. George Colbert hugged his son, George Jr., a first-grader, when he got off the bus. “I’m happy to see him and relieved that
The special purpose grand jury report that indicted DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis fought for months to keep from the public was released Aug. 21 by DeKalb Superior Court judges. The 80-page report details w idespread abuses of county contracting dating back to the administration of former DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones. It documents Ellis’ aggressive solicitation of county Burrell Ellis contractors for campaign contributions of $2,500 to $25,000, and documents his interference and manipulation in county contracting, and threatening uncooperative vendors. The pub- Read the report lication of in its entirety t h e re p o r t on Pages B1-B8 comes seven in this issue of months after CrossRoadsNews. its completed-on date of Jan. 18, 2013. The jury sued in Georgia Supreme Court to have the report released. Through testimonies, documents and recordings, the 23 grand jurors, which met weekly for a year to examine the the operation of county’s Watershed Management Department which is implementing a $1.35 billion Capital Improvement Plan. It found invoice padding, contract fraud and bid rigging. The report shows how close friends of
Please see MCNAIR, page A6
Please see GRAND JURY, page A4
Ken Watts / CrossRoadsNews
By Ken Watts
Scathing grand jury report released