How Currey Hitchens’s experience as an attorney protecting students’ rights informs her bid to be a Superintendent who advocates for all students & educators

By Jeanie Dizon and Charita Sodagum

Currey Hitchens is running for Georgia Superintendent of Schools, and she has dedicated her career to supporting teachers and students. She is the daughter of two Georgia public school teachers and grew up immersed in the education system, which shaped her love for school and learning. Currey loved public school but realized there was always room for improvement. Even at a very young age, Hitchens spoke up when she thought other students were being treated unfairly. As an adult, she has defended the interests of students and teachers – both as an educator and a lawyer – and advocated for policies that support equity in public schools. Hitchens’s energy for getting things done, openness to listening to new ideas, and deep empathy make her the best candidate for Georgia Superintendent of Schools. 

Fighting for the rights of all school children. 

Working for Georgia Legal Services as an attorney, Hitchens received her first case that dealt with education. A student who was nonverbal and diagnosed with autism needed assistance in the restroom, but his teachers were unwilling to provide help (even though limited bodily coordination and muscle strength can be a common problem for autistic children). She advocated heavily for the child, citing restroom access as an essential need. As a result of her support, the child was assigned a paraprofessional who helped with this need and provided other services as part of his Individualized Education Program, or IEP. This experience spurred to dedicate herself to getting students the services they deserve. She created the Legal Education Advocacy Project (LEAP), which facilitates the pro bono work of volunteer attorneys for K-12 legal cases that deal with IEPs and disciplinary issues. Advocating for children who face challenges at school is at the forefront of Currey Hitchens’ work. 

Hitchens also supports protecting transgender athletes, because she believes no child should be the victim of bullying. Responding to recently passed legislation, Hitchens says, “Georgia didn’t directly ban transgender athletes, but it essentially did by creating  a committee that is able – and likely – to do just that.” Republicans’ sudden interest in women’s sports – the primary focus of the legislation – appears disingenuous, shares Hitchens, since men’s sports are not undergoing the same scrutiny. 

She shares, “the legislation was uninformed. It tried to hate-monger against children, particularly those who are already in a vulnerable population. They are already  prone to commit suicide and to experience mental health issues, because they are already discriminated against in so many ways. To me, [those who passed that legislation] don’t care about the lives of transgender children;they’d rather ‘protect’ cis gendered athletes’ chances at a scholarship  than the lives of people. That doesn’t seem like that should ever be part of any equation for public good. We should always want to protect lives. 

These are legislators who have shown no prior interest in promoting sports for girls and women, yet they are creating a problem where there isn’t one in order no to sow fear. If we really want to support sports for girls and women, let’s start with investing more time and money in them.”

Currey Hitchens’s hope is that schools would  be places of safety and support for all students, especially for ones who are struggling and who have experienced trauma (which many have with the Covid pandemic). “Kids need services, and we need to get them services before they get to that [breaking] point. Normalize counseling.” 

When  students act out, Hitchens stresses counseling over expulsion. “Kids get kicked out of school just for defending themselves. They’re doing nothing to get attacked, yet they get kicked out. As superintendent, I will fight to stop suspending and expelling kids. They shouldn’t be punished by being removed from the educational environment. That’s a terrible punishment.”, Hitchens seeks to create more awareness around legal access available to students facing disciplinary hearings, with the hope of reducing the criminalization of students overall and ending the School to Prison Pipeline. 

Advocating for Educators.

Currey Hitchens is a fierce advocate for teachers. From Tunnel Hill Elementary School to Emory Law, even as a student, Hitchens always made a point to listen to the concerns of teachers and staff. Her alma mater, Agnes Scott College, had the first union of a higher education facilities team more than 50 years ago. Hitchens supports the Living Wage Campaign at Agnes Scott, which strives to make sure that all staff at the college receive a living wage. 

Hitchens believes that, “Teachers need more protections in the classrooms. They need to be protected to  teach the truth in Georgia, and they need to be paid more.” Teaching the truth in Georgia is a political hotpoint, with a law banning so-called ‘divisive concepts’ signed by Governor Kemp on April 28, 2022. 

In high school, Hitchens was a member of the mock trial and debate teams, which influenced her decision to go to law school. Debate and mock trial would not be possible without the ability for students to discuss divisive concepts. This ban would take away an important part of students’ educational experience.  

Hitchens believes students should be taught accurate history—even Georgia history, however fraught—without the censorship of difficult topics. “We have an engraving of Confederate generals on Stone Mountain and similar statues across the state, which is sort of history but not really. I don’t know if people even realize that a lot of these monuments weren’t built right after the Civil War; they were built during the Civil Rights movement. They weren’t built to commemorate a war or lost soldiers, they were built to intimidate black people. If we knew the actual history, we might think, ‘Wait a minute, maybe we don’t need to preserve this piece of racist history in Georgia.’” 

Hitchens seeks to fight back against Georgia’s Senate Bill 226, under which school libraries would be  controlled not by librarians and professional educators but by parents (based on what they deem appropriate for children to read). “We shouldn’t be banning books. We need books to start conversations and to learn about things that are actually going on.” 

Books shaped Hitchens, teaching her how to be a caring individual and to have compassion for people who didn’t necessarily share her point of view. “I got to read about all kinds of people  and identify with them  in different ways. You don’t have to be like a character to identify with them; when you read a book you get to put yourself in the character’s shoes”. Books also allow families to explore topics that may be difficult or traumatic to discuss. 

The book All American Boys by Jason Reynolds helped Hitchens, as a mother to black children, address the frightening prospect of police brutality. Her 13-year-old son asked if he should be afraid of the police, and the book provided age-appropriate context to the issue of police violence and how families are affected by it. 

As Georgia Superintendent of Schools, Hitchens would strive to make every school a good school and to ensure  all children receive a good  education, regardless of their economic status. Hitchens has gone through the process of deciding where to send her kids for school. “I don’t like thinking about what is the best school; what I am trying to think about is which school is best for my child. I don’t want it to be that some schools are good, some schools are bad. I want it such that all schools are good.”

A better way: Community Schools

Hitchens promotes the concept of community schools, where there is a partnership between the school and the community’s resources. The National Education Association defines Community Schools as public schools that provide services and support which fit each neighborhood’s needs, created and run by the people who know our children best—families, educators, community organizations, local governments, and the students themselves—all working together. Hitchens  believes community schools would provide not only educational resources for students and teachers but also a chance for people to find extra support within their community—from vaccine drives to union meetings. 

A system that supports children, teachers, and schools. 

Indeed, Currey Hitchens’s vision for Georgia public schools focuses on equity, truth, and community. 

“I hope people vote for me, because I will help make all schools great schools, fight for teachers to get what they need and be respected, and fight for students to stay in the classroom and get the services they need as well,” says Hitchens.