Dear Carver Community,

 

We first want to thank you for taking the time to meet with us and share your concerns regarding recent changes to the Carver football home game schedule for the 19-20 school year. I believe we all want to ensure the safest possible environment for our students and communities as we engage in athletic competitions. Your love for the Carver community is truly evident, and we appreciate you standing in the gap as advocates.

 

While we have made an unpopular decision, I want to stress to you again the importance of us taking measures when necessary in order to maximize the safety for all of our patrons in large settings. The unfortunate events from the Carver vs. Mays game led us to adjust scheduling in order to prevent the likelihood of future occurences. Nothing is more important than the lives of our APS families, and our decision was more of a protective response to a serious issue that caused significant injuries to some of our students. 

 

We have listened carefully to the concerns raised through emails and during our meeting. We further  understand this unpopular decision in some ways serves as a detriment to other priorities while giving the perception of singling out a community. Among other challenges, work schedules have been adjusted, some college visits for our football players will have to be rescheduled, and student-athletes taking the SAT/ACT will now have full Saturdays leading up to competition. With this in mind, we will continue with the adjustments made to Friday night games but reconvene after the September 28 game to assess safety risks while considering the start time/day for future games. Once this assessment occurs, we will determine whether or not it is reasonable to reschedule some Saturday games back to the evening.

 

Please know that nothing is more important to us than the safety of people. It is from this foundation that we reached our most recent decisions. We will continue to monitor this matter and work with the Atlanta Police Department as they continue their investigation. 

 

Thank you again for your advocacy, and we will keep you posted on any future developments.

 

Dan A. Sims, Ed.D.

Associate Superintendent of Schools

(9-12, Single Gender, and Non-Traditional)