If this place gets any crazier...
this was the publicity Calhoun-Gordon County received from the fake page and the news stories. People don’t understand the damage it does to how the community is perceived. Everyone wants to complain about why CalhounGordon County can’t have nice things. If you were, say, an owner of a movie theater chain, would you want to move into a community that is known for a fake Facebook page that has the public up in arms over a fake snake infestation problem? No! Of course you would not want to move your business into the community.
A few weeks ago, the fake City of Calhoun Facebook page disappeared, and up popped a fake Calhoun Times Facebook page. It was cute and a little flattering until this past weekend, when all you- know- what broke loose after a fake story appeared concerning a “Feral Cat Roundup” in downtown Calhoun, that was being sanctioned by “The Calhoun Times.”
The Facebook page, which was originally called “The Calhoun Timez,” now carried the name “The Calhoun Times,” and looked just like our Facebook page, using our profile and banner photos.
Sports Editor Alex and I began receiving messages and emails concerning the fake posting on the fake Facebook page Sunday morning. People were outraged that the Calhoun Times would promote the killing of animals. We received threats; we received messages and calls from animal rights groups from places as diverse as West Virginia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Kentucky; and we spent most of the day Monday trying to assure people that what was posted was not our information.
As of press time, the fake Facebook page is down. We appreciate very much the community members who took the time to report the Facebook page as spam. Our owners, who are both attorneys, have been made aware of the fake page and hopefully will have the pertinent information needed concerning the administration of the fake page soon so legal steps can be taken to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I stress to everyone to please use caution on social media and before you believe just any story put out there, check the page it is coming from: look at follower counts ( the Calhoun Times has more than 21,000), look in the “about” section to see if it is legitimately a business. And please, unless you know for a fact the story is true, do not share on your personal page. This is how Atlanta news stations show up in our community...
Déjà vu doesn’t even begin to cover the mess concerning Gordon County Schools...
We hear you loud and clear. Since my original story and column concerning Gordon County Schools a few weeks ago, more than 100 people have called, emailed, messaged and stopped by the office to tell us their experiences with the school system. Most are former employees, but some are current employees who are anonymously giving us tips and information to check out.
I now have eight file folders full of documents; I do not hesitate to say hundreds and hundreds of pages that I am still in the middle of reviewing. I’m still conducting interviews as well. When we receive accusations as serious as the ones that have been made, we have to take additional time to make sure we have every document we need to be able to give our readers accurate information. Sexual harassment from teacher to teacher. Sexual harassment from teacher to student. Demotions due to reporting inappropriate behavior. Not responding to accusations and covering the accusations up. Missing documents in human resource files. Not posting open positions. Nepotism. Favoritism. Lowering of professional standards to promote people into leadership positions who are not qualified for those positions but are directly related to other directors. How being a Charter School is affecting the school system negatively and what can be done about it.
Accusation after accusation after accusation... and they are all very serious accusations. We cannot, as I’ve told a few people, “go willy nilly” into reporting these things being told to us. We have to be able to either prove or disprove the accusations, and that’s where we are now in the process. This will not be some quick story and then it’s all done; this will be a drawn- out process but I can assure the public we are in it for the long haul.
Please be patient as we continue to interview and request documents through Open Records. We are not trying to cover anything up. We just want to make sure everything is accurate before we churn out any stories. After all, our ultimate goal is to bring some sanity to a crazy time in our community.
Brandi MooreheadOwczarz is the Managing Editor of the Calhoun Times. You can email her at bowczarz@ calhountimes. com or find her on Facebook by searching Brandi Moorehead Owczarz.