Warner Robins High School staff receive Heart of Service Award, local church request WRHS mascot change 

PERRY — The student shot at Warner Robins High School would not be here today without the efforts of these three school staff members, it was said by Houston County Board of Education representatives during their meeting held Tuesday.

To that end, they gave the Heart of Service Award to School Resource Officer Deputy Cody Nelson, Dr. Rebecca Ivory and Med Tech Katherine Salyers. 

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Richard Rogers said at the meeting that Ivory immediately placed the school on Code Red and alerted law enforcement as soon as the shooting occurred. Ivory stayed with the student until first responders arrived. 

“Your quick thinking and immediate action helped protect an entire school while also helping that student who needed you the most,” he said. 

When the Code Red was activated, Nelson immediately responded to the emergency and began providing life-saving aid to the student, applying two tourniquets and staying with the students until EMS had arrived. 

“In a moment when every second mattered, your training, courage and calm response made a tremendous difference,” he said. 

Salyers also responded immediately. Rogers said her service did not stop after the ambulance left. 

“You continued checking on the people around you making sure staff members were okay,” he said. 

In the wake of the shooting, Senior Pastor of Eighth Day Church David Brinson and his daughter and Youth Pastor Khaira spoke before the board requesting the mascot of Warner Robins High School be changed. 

Brinson defined a demon as an “evil spirit especially when thought to possess a person or act of tormenting in Hell.” He also described a demon as another word for “devil”. Brinson said they are concerned about the shooting at the school and said they are grateful no one had died. 

“We are here to help and want to team up with our community and board leaders because we are concerned about the rapid decay in respect, values and genuine care for people as a whole,” he said. “We believe reinforcing model behavior is important to our children to develop model citizens.” 

Brinson requested to have the board take action to not call students of WRHS “demons”. He said words do hurt and that they can overpower young minds. 

“I wholeheartedly believe that speaking demon over the youth, faculty and staff for the last 82 years has sparked the events that we are now seeing today,” Khiara Brinson said. “Referring to these groups of people as demons, demonettes and ending speeches with ‘demon pride’ do nothing but tear down and encourage this behavior that does not exemplify the type of society that I want to live in.”