VALDOSTA —
The first day of school was bitter sweet for some parents on Wednesday as it marked a major milestone in some of their children’s lives. While anxiously excited Kindergartners galloped up the red carpet at Sallas Mahone Elementary School, some parents tearfully lagged behind trying to prepare themselves to let go. It is because of this difficult transition that Sallas Mahone and other elementary schools in Valdosta hold the Boo Hoo/Yippee Breakfast sponsored by the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO).
“Instead of dropping your child off and going back into your car and crying and crying,” said April Ward, an academic coach and Sallas Mahone and organizer of the breakfast.
Valdosta City Schools has been holding the Boo Hoo/Yippee Breakfast for five years.
“At first it was a simple thing and now we have expanded it and go into things such as expectations,” said Ward.
While there were pompoms on each table in the media center for parents cheering because they got their last one out the door, many opted for the tissues and more sniffles rather than yuppie’s were heard.
“Was it not a mere yesterday that you were learning how to walk and I know that it was just last week we were teaching you to talk,” Ward read from a poem called “First Day of School”.
It was the poem that finally broke a few parents.
“It’s okay, they’re going to be in great hands,” various school officials said over and over again to comfort parents.
For some parents like Tonie Pritchett, making it to Wednesday was so much more than a milestone.
“My daughter Aleah Pritchett was premature,” said Pritchett. “And they said she wouldn’t make it and now she’s 5.”
For others such as Deametrice Wilson, it was just the beginning of a long road of growing up and letting go.
“It was hard because you go from holding them . . . and now they’re in school,” said Wilson.
Wilson’s daughter, Beverly Gardner, was not as upset as her mother about starting school. In fact, she had her eyes set on the future.
“When do I go to college mom?” Beverly asked as her mother was just trying to make it through the first day of Kindergarten.
Some parents, like Kassie Robinson, lost sleep over the ordeal.
“I didn’t sleep at all and I just laid there thinking,” said Robinson.
Robinson wondered if her daughter Kassie Robinson would know how to use the bathroom by herself and if she would remember to tell the teacher. She worried if she knew how to buy her lunch and if she would like the food and eat it. However, Kassie was not worried about any of those things.
“She walked in and just sat down and was just so excited,” said Robinson.
While the media center was full of sniffles and sour faces, the Kindergarten hall was a different sight all together. Children were socializing, laughing and coloring. While there were a few cries and wails for mommy, for the most part, it was the parent’s who feared the first day of school more than the children.
Local News
Related Photos
-
Brittany D. McClure | The Valdosta Daily Times Jack Steedley colors contently with his teacher Janae Howell after just being dropped off for his first day of Kindergarten.
-
Brittany D. McClure | The Valdosta Daily Times There were more boo hoo’s than yippees on Wednesday at the Boo Hoo/Yippee Breakfast at Sallas Mahone Elementary.
Discussion
Back to School Boo Hoo’s
- Local News
-
-
VECA recognized at VSU
Rising juniors from the Valdosta Early College Academy (VECA) were recognized at Valdosta State University Wednesday night as the first group of students to begin earning college credit while still in high school.
-
Businesses raise funds for Oklahoma disaster
By now, we’ve all heard about the tragedy in Moore, Okla., a mile-wide, F5 tornado with winds of more than 200 miles per hour carved through 17 miles over a span of 50 minutes on Monday afternoon.
-
Southwestern State Hospital to close
One of Thomas County’s largest employers — at more than 700 people — and a longtime regional state mental hospital will close Dec. 31.
-
Search for survivors continues
Helmeted rescue workers raced Tuesday to complete the search for survivors and the dead in the Oklahoma City suburb where a mammoth tornado destroyed countless homes, cleared lots down to bare red earth and claimed 24 lives, including those of nine children.
-
Curator offers arts a helping hand
If you’ve been to the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts in the past four years, you have seen the quiet art of Bill Shenton.
-
Albino gators visit Wild Adventures
Two rare albino American alligators have joined the other gators at Wild Adventures for the summer.
-
Officers wound man in shootout
A Lanier County man was wounded Saturday during an exchange of gunfire with lawmen, according to a Lanier County Sheriff’s Office press release.
-
Woman fights to live after cancer
To be whole again, the desire that sometimes overwhelms chair-bound Mandy Painter, fuels the Realtor each day through walking lessons during physical therapy and it's also what could see her through a cutting-edge program in Boston, where world-class neurologists can reawaken her cerebellum and see the mother of three to her feet again.
-
North Ashley Street closed following accident
A Sport Utility Vehicle traveling north on North Ashley Street drove into a telephone pole Monday morning, resulting in the closure of the road.
-
Gornto extension half complete
The Gornto Road extension project is more than half-way complete, and could be finished ahead of the one-year deadline contractors were given when the project was approved Oct. 11 by the Valdosta City Council.
- More Local News Headlines
-
