14-year-old JV Martin Junior High student Ty'Sheoma Bethea sat in the audience as President Obama's guest for his address to Congress.
(AP) -- The former principal of a dilapidated South Carolina school thrust into the national spotlight by President Barack Obama is receiving an award.
The South Carolina NAACP is recognizing Amanda Burnette on Friday for raising awareness about education inequities in the state's rural schools.
Burnette is the former principal of Dillon County's J.V. Martin Junior High School. She now works for the state Education Department.
Obama visited J.V. Martin in the run-up to the 2008 election.
And in 2009, the president discussed the school during his first congressional address, as 14-year-old eighth-grade student
Ty'Sheoma Bethea sat in the audience as his invited guest.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved $24 million to build a new school.
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