, @GoBlythewood Mallorie Hogue & Anna Kelly finished 4th & 3rd, respectively, at the @SCHSL Girls Class 5A Division 1 State Championships

Our latest commentary is from Patrick Kelly with @PSTANews, who says requiring teachers to follow a script is hampering, not helping, student achievement: The lesson from SC report cards? Teaching to a script is a failure. via @SCDailyGazette

This post is coming from love. I’m willing to take the backlash. This week has been amazing. Disaster struck & we answered & will continue to do so. The only disappointment I have is with those making this week political or partisan. Some don’t realize politically & financially-motivated people within & outside our country are trying to take advantage of this disaster. You may not realize, but my tweet last Sunday asking for generators went viral on X. 770,000 views. My phone didn’t stop notifying or ringing. Thousands of reposts & replies to that tweet, nearly all of them were negative about Ukraine, migrants, or the President just 48 hours into recovery. My bet is nearly all of them are bots & people susceptible to bots. We are being manipulated by people who don’t have our best interests at heart. Two weeks ago, some of you didn’t trust our schools or local law enforcement in regards to gun threats. This week, we don’t trust FEMA, the military, & a fire chief in North Carolina. For those railing against a fire chief, do you really believe a local fire chief does not have his community’s best interests at heart? May it be that he has protocols to follow & doesn’t want the possibility of having to rescue the rescuers? Can these processes be improved? Of course. Government is run by imperfect people. For those who are railing against the federal government, I think it’s important to point out that a significant portion of everything you have seen by utility companies, the County of Pickens, the City of Easley, the National Guard will be reimbursed by the federal government. Yes, even as small as if your debris is picked up in the next few weeks, it is likely federal money doing so. Ultimately, you & I can’t change fearful or distrustful hearts. However, we can lead by example by not being political or partisan or seeking a financially profitable article or tv segment during a crisis. We can decide to not manipulate others’ fears. I could have manipulated people this week by saying X utility company or X first responder was not responding to my local requests to some sad situation to rile you up. But I didn’t - they had valid reasons. We can do what I think we all should do - simply help our sphere of influence without financial or political gain. That’s what my faith calls on me. God knows we have a lot of needs in our backyard no matter what week of distrust it is.

@wis10 and @MaryGreenNews share how a new scholarship enhancement is helping students like Catherine Hinson on their journey to become teachers. “I think everybody kind of felt a little bit of relief because it’s just — it’s very helpful,” says Hinson.