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DeKalb County School Board member talks about low morale, suicides
During Friday's special called meeting of the DeKalb County School Board, Dr. Joyce Morley brought up low morale and even suicides of school employees.
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - As debate over the DeKalb County School Board firing its former superintendent continues, one board member has called attention to a troubling number of suicides among staff members.
"The morale is so low that it’s through the floor," Dr. Joyce Morley, who represents DeKalb County Schools District 7.
During a special called meeting last Thursday, board members were in the midst of approving the agreement between the district and its choice for interim superintendent, Dr. Vasanne Tinsley.
When other board members expressed their opposition, Dr. Morley brought up a number of district employees struggling with the stresses of the job, pointing to multiple staff members that she said had committed suicide in recent years.
"My understanding is there were two teachers and one principal, and it’s a conversation I’ve mentioned but it has never been discussed," she said.
Dr. Morley said poor leadership from former Superintendent Cheryl Watson-Harris is partially to blame.
"The leader is the one who sets the tone and if you have a leader at the top that tone should be able to trickle down," she explained.
Watson-Harris’s firing has led to backlash from Governor Brian Kemp and State Senator Elena Parent, who called for an investigation into the school board.
Several local mayors in the county also expressed concerns about the decision in a formal letter. Dr. Morley, a licensed psychotherapist, said morale amongst school staff hasn’t been this low since she joined the board a decade ago.
"Our children are under undue stress, our parents, our teachers, our educators, our custodians, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, counselors, all of them," she said. "Everyone is under insurmountable stress and we want to blame everything on COVID but what COVID really did was uncover the cover-ups of what we haven’t been dealing with all the years."
Dr. Morley said she believes the solution to the problem is allocating more money in the district’s budget to proper mental health resources for both students and staff.
She said DeKalb County Schools has a great staff of guidance counselors for students but does not have licensed clinical therapists at every school in the district. That’s something she said she hopes will change in how the board spends its $2 billion budget. In the meantime, she encouraged anyone dealing with mental health issues to call the suicide prevention hotline at 1-800-662-HELP.