Who is holding the Director of Schools (Superintendent) and those who teach our children and grandchildren accountable?

This is in response to the article that made the Sunday September 28 headline. It seems the high school is allowing teachers to practice unethical behavior that impacts what students are being taught. Dozens of knowledgeable citizens showed up at the Board of Education meeting on September 23 and many spoke about the inflammatory post that a THS criminal justice teacher publicly endorsed, along with one of her own posts, implying that she supported the political violence and assassination of Charlie Kirk. But the BOE, who is supposed to represent citizens, took no corrective action, nor are they holding the Tullahoma Superintendent accountable. 

Within a week after the public post went viral, the TCS School superintendent and attorney stated they had conducted an investigation to determine the impact and reprimand for the teacher, with no oversight or prior spending approval by the elected officials. They acted swiftly to dismiss the severity of the offense so that by the time the next BOE meeting was held, they already had already completed their task. The reprimand letter to the teacher was nothing more than a slap on the hand and didn’t even pertain to the main issue. At the BOE meeting, the school attorney preemptively lectured the citizens on the protection under the First Amendment, which was insulting to citizens and irrelevant to the offense. Yet citizens proceeded with their united comments with civility and in the same spirit of Charlie Kirk.

Citizens of Tullahoma need to ask the question: “Who is really running our schools?” This attorney represents several counties and by partnering with the Superintendent, they seem to be operating with complete authority over our public schools. The criminal justice teacher is certainly at fault, but the superintendent, school principal and attorney all need to be held responsible for this and other serious matters, which should perhaps include all of their dismissals.

Maureen Burke

Tullahoma