Roy Exum
In the past three weeks, ever since my attention has become riveted on the Hamilton County Department of Education, I have been called a lot of things that I am not: courageous … a Pulitzer candidate … very brutal … hero … piling on … “finally a voice” … a meddler … a saint … and a lot of cuss words. I have been accused of things that are not true - a hater of Rick Smith, one who “just wants to hurt people,” inciting a mob, “a stupid sports writer who knows nothing,” that now I have “blood on your hands” and a “jerk who needs to go back in his ivory tower on Lookout Mountain.” I don’t believe any of these things are true at all.
But on the advice of one reader who implored, “The deeper you dig the more worms you will find,” the biggest surprise has been, “Why didn’t anybody say anything as our education system has gotten worse and worse?” Why hasn’t one parent demanded excellence in such a public way that it would arouse support?
I will forever be haunted by the fact that not one player on the Ooltewah High basketball team didn’t try to intervene when teammates have been beaten since the start of practice. How, in God’s name, could Ooltewah vice principal Jesse Nayadley, also the athletic director, not have known his ninth-grade child – a member of the basketball team – was being bullied and harassed? As a father who picked up my son after athletics every day when he was in high school, that is inconceivable to me. I believe very strongly the child’s mother knew. Mothers know everything.
Equally mystifying is why not one person at Ooltewah High or in the entire Hamilton County school system dared to report what happened. People at the HCDE know better than any of us you report child abuse. It took a Knoxville tipster who faxed an incident report from the Knoxville Police Department for what was obviously a cover-up to ever be revealed.
Superintendent Rick Smith says he has never covered up anything, this following 20 days of silence after the story broke. He also repeatedly denied any adults were involved. He gave a stilted apology the day after School Board Chairman Jonathan Welch gave an impassioned one, but, then again, there is little gained by kicking a dead mule.
Basketball coach Andre Montgomery allegedly cleaned the bloody floors of the cabin and quickly threw away the blood-stained clothes of the victim to hide evidence, then his team went on to play several more games while the victim recovered from emergency surgery. I fully believe Montgomery will never coach, teach, or have any influence over children again. No matter the courts’ decision, the public will never forget Nayadley, Montgomery or assistant coach Karl Williams and will never allow it again. All three, now suspended without pay, will be fired in short order.
As hundreds of thousands have recoiled as news of the repulsive crime rocketed through national news outlets, the insane response by the HCDE invited a closer look into the system itself. Fueled by a caustic report on local education called “Chattanooga 2.0” that was made available in early December, the HCDE’s bobble of the crime’s aftermath laid bare a multitude of problems and warts within the HCDE.
Hundreds of emails from concerned parents, former and present athletes who have been hazed at Ooltewah (and other schools), and an irked HCDE staff that had been waiting to unload their disgust with the system’s leadership came in a flood. The best were from the teachers across the system – the devastated teachers, the morose teachers, the indignant teachers, the ashamed teachers and the defensive teachers.
Suddenly all of the confidence, the dignity and the pride in our school system was gone. Some are blaming me for the turmoil, but did I do it? I don’t think so. I fault Ooltewah basketball for allowing a team to become uncontrollable (54 fouls in one game?), the School Board for not demanding more accountability and proof of the system’s progress for the past four years, and Rick Smith’s leadership team for quite obviously failing the children of Hamilton County.
I believe there needs to be a deep, thorough and vivid “cleansing” of the district’s ‘hardship’ program. It should start this week. This is how public schools recruit athletes, make no mistake about it. Three of those involved in the rape were brought to Ooltewah for no other reason than to help the basketball team win. All three were zoned for Howard, but two had such thick disciplinary files in middle school that Howard coaches were delighted they went elsewhere. Ooltewah’s students and parents just paid a brutal price for having coaches who cheat the system.
The School Board, with student deportment reaching the point where teachers are openly cursed daily by students, needs to act swiftly to empower School Resource Officers with stronger disciplinary ability and procedures. The teachers themselves should have the authority to send bums and thugs to jail who act in ways that impair any other children’s ability to learn. We can’t afford to tolerate trouble-makers any longer.
The biggest injustice in our school system is that our teachers are no longer allowed to teach. Now they are frustrated “test preparers” who do little more than fine-tune kids for stupid and senseless tests the state dictates our children must take. They have a history test, for instance, that takes days for a high school student to finish and – what? – the high school doesn’t even get individual results? That can’t be right! Teachers must be given the free rein to make learning fun and reading exciting.
The School Board should team with the one in Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis and demand the state cease “dumbing down” the children the metro boards are sworn to serve. We give one test at the end of the year and the SAT when you are a senior. The state of Tennessee Department of Education could save millions as a result, passing it to children instead, and talk about a top-heavy state Department of Education.
At the same time we must elect our superintendents rather than allow the School Board to select them for us. Here’s why: the board hires the superintendent but that’s all they can do. The superintendent can hire, fire, give raises, and demote teachers and everything else. Can you imagine what would happen – seriously -- if our sitting judges, our district attorney or any of the other elected officials worked at the whim of just nine people?
In the past month I’ve studied our School Board and, while I rail at the ‘good ole boy’ influence, we’ve got some good people. David Testerman is a friend of mine and, while he went on an unfortunate rant last week, he and his colleagues have been under an enormous strain during January. The HCDE tells the board far too little in a conniving “what they don’t know, they can’t fix” way. It is easy to see.
The School Board should have a monthly report on fights, hazing incidents, and all disciplinary matters.
Every member of the board should know whenever a teacher or staff is hired, when and why they leave, or when and why they are terminated. We ought to keep a ledger on misbehavior and, if any one child is over the top, they ought to be dealt with harshly by the Juvenile Court.
The SROs ought to report to the board every month on behalf of Sheriff Jim Hammond and, if a school needs more than one, more SROs should be assigned immediately to put out any fires before they get bigger. Forget the cost – look at what we have in every middle and high school right now. Our poorest schools lack discipline, propriety and students who respect one another. That should have never been an option.
If somebody’s child doesn’t get off the bus, check your phone messages – then go to the Juvenile Court and bail them out. After about four trips, the good people at “Juvenile” will tell you when you can get your child back. I’d make school start in the detention center at 8 a.m. and end at 6 p.m. every day. No TV whatsoever. All you get is one book to read. I’d make it the last place a teenager would ever want to visit and I can predict that very soon it wouldn’t be crowded at all. And if a kid “acts out” at the detention center, that poor decision means the whole day doesn’t count against the days of the sentence.
I know what the teachers say: Today’s children have no home life. Often they are left alone overnight. There is no family structure. Many get nothing to eat from Friday until they get to school on Monday. Please, we have to confront such sorrow instead of ignoring it. Let’s make Saturday a “work day” where children come to school, wash desks, plant flowers, arrange library books in exchange for breakfast, lunch, and a food bag for Sunday.
You say that is cruel; I say they have structure, somebody who knows where they are, something to eat and a place to stay safe that is warm. Yes, their parent or guardian is responsible, but what if they have to work, tend an ailing mother or are in jail themselves? Staff “Work Saturdays” with UTC education majors and give faculty “double overtime” for teaching the college kids while watching over the little helpers. And, hey, let’s watch a movie together sometimes.
I’ve had a dozen emails that tell me I know nothing about education and, candidly, that is true in some respects. But I have the ability to speak out when I see something wrong, something that has been ignored and, in my opinion, manipulated. You're doggone right the HCDE leaders are hiding and/or omitting what they tell the School Board. When I teach my readers what I’ve discovered, is that education?
After a week I was told more than the School Board did and in the third week members were telling me they had never heard such things. Why? Because I’m digging, with new sources every day, while the School Board shows up once a month with the naïve notion that nothing is wrong, that everything is just peachy.
The School Board should have total transparency and, if anyone is found to be hiding a problem rather than presenting it to the board for guidance, try not to let the door hit you when you leave. There is a void between the HCDE and the School Board. The School Board needs more authority to direct and confirm the system is moving forward.
As for me, I’m just a guy who showed up when a tragedy occurred and found almost as big a mess was waiting. I am assured a huge wave of support is coming to the public schools. I believe parents must resurrect PTAs or PTOs and that school booster groups should jolly well hold coaches accountable. I believe there are others at Ooltewah who were directly or indirectly involved in the hazing atmosphere that will be sanctioned in the District Attorney General and the Sheriff’s investigation.
Most of all, I believe we are going to be better after the smoke clears away and the lesson is learned that you never hide from anything. In this, a new day, we must confront every problem that comes our way.
royexum@aol.com