Decision 2022: Closer look at JCPS District 6 Board candidates
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - District 6 is right in the middle of Jefferson County, starting immediately to the east of Interstate 65.
One thing that connects the two people running to represent that district on the Jefferson County Public Schools Board of Education is the fact that both are parents.
Corrie Shull, who has served on the board for the last four years, has two kids who are JCPS students.
Glin has a daughter who graduated from Ballard High School, but she withdrew her son after he was bullied.
That’s part of the reason she wants to see some changes with safety and security on campuses across the entire district.
“I think a presence of a security officer in every school is important to make sure we can control violence in our schools. One entrance, a lot of cameras on the hallway, then we have eyes on every inch of the school. Maybe metal detectors in the future. I realize that’s kind of a logistics nightmare,” Glin said.
The district is in the process of putting more unarmed school security officers on campuses. It’s a new plan that was implemented at the start of this school year. It falls short of the state’s new requirement of armed resource officers on every campus. That’s about 150 for JCPS.
Shull believes this a good first step.
“The district’s new police department that is created in such a way to ensure that we maintain school security but that we’re not creating a prison-like environment for our students. We don’t want to criminalize students. We don’t want to create an environment that is akin to a prison. We want to create an engaging education environment,” Shull said.
Another area where they don’t see eye to eye on the board’s role in the library.
You may remember the book, “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” getting a lot of attention this year after a parental complaint that it had graphic depictions of sex. A panel decided it could stay on the shelves of the handful of high schools where it was stocked.
Shull said that’s the way it’s supposed to work, but Glin disagrees.
“The board of education does not determine what books are in the libraries. That is determined by professionals within the school system. I think we have to honor our processes, I think we have to honor the professionals who are trained to make age-appropriate decisions concerning the literature that’s in libraries,” Shull said.
“I think we have to be really hands-on with that. Books need to be age appropriate. I actually read that book before a forum with my opponent just to make sure that I was very well-versed on what the book had in it. I was appalled by the images I saw that we can have these in our schools. I don’t, I’ve been painted as a homophobic but it has nothing to do with the gay sex, it has to do with the sex,” said Glin.
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