TIFTON — Board of Education members praised the efforts of staff and faculty in responding to various crises across the last few weeks.

A large collection of Tift County Schools employees received Beyond the T Awards at the Oct. 10 Board of Education meeting as congratulations to their quick response to incidents going on at schools in the county or the greater community in recent weeks.

Tift County Schools chief information officer Dana Spurlin offered praise to the staff who came to the aid of Eighth Street Middle School Sept. 23, after the school had received a threat of a school shooting occurring. In response to the threat, many parents had decided to check their children out of school, but had done so in such magnitude the school was unable to easily handle the process.

Spurlin noted that the incoming staff had not only aided in checking out over 200 students in under two hours, but had worked with a level of grace and patience that had managed to calm many an anxious parent.

Among the faculty being recognized, she drew special attention to Tift County High School teacher Josh Bowyer, who, as she had been informed through a letter written to the school system, had handled the checkout procedure with a remarkable level of kindness and professionalism.

Spurlin also praised the efforts of TCHS teacher Peter Pinnow, who had recently gone viral on TikTok due to his drive to protect his students Sept. 25.

After an altercation between students at TCHS had resulted in one of them being stabbed, the school was placed on lockdown and students and teachers were confined to their classrooms. During this time, a student had filmed Pinnow, at the ready to defend his class from any would-be assailant, which was later posted to the social media network.

TCHS principal Jennifer Johnson later received an email from a teacher in Texas praising Pinnow’s efforts, Spurlin said, who had seen the video and was touched by his willingness to protect his students even at the risk of harm to himself.

Lastly, board members offered as much gratitude as they could muster to the school’s nutrition team, which, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, had been working overtime to prepare meals for the students of Tift County.

Spurlin proudly reported that the team had prepped just over 16,000 meals for their students, worked to consolidate their supplies into two staging sites, and ensured every county student received a hot meal.

While only a handful of nutrition team members were present to receive Beyond the T Awards, school superintendent Natalie Gore asserted the entire department would be given the honor as thanks for their hard work.

Gore also expressed her appreciation for the sense of community that had come as a result of these incidents, stating that even though they had been faced by a number of stressful situations in the last few weeks, she was proud to see how the community had come together to face them.