Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn, third from right, and Oak Ridge High School Acting Principal David Bryant, left, and Superintendent Bruce Borchers, second from left, attend a Monday afternoon press conference at the high school where education officials rebutted Baughn’s allegations that there is a “culture of terror” in the schools, drugs are rampant, and students are at risk of being assaulted.
Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn fired the first shot, writing a letter critical of education officials and alleging that the city’s schools have a “culture of terror,†drugs are rampant, and students are at risk of being assaulted.
On Monday, school supporters and students fired back in a barrage that started with an afternoon press conference at Oak Ridge High School and ended at a City Council meeting.
During the Council meeting, Chuck Agle, who serves on the Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission and is the husband of school board member Angi Agle, asked council members to express their disapproval by censuring Baughn. To imply that Oak Ridge Schools widely tolerate wrongdoing is wrong, Agle said.
“The Oak Ridge school system is one of the highest-performing in the nation,†he said.
Others said they read Baughn’s letter with disbelief and were disappointed and insulted.
“I don’t know what school system was being described because it wasn’t the school system that I have attended,†said Jim Andress, vice president of the ORHS Class of 2013, a National Merit Semifinalist, and member of a two-student ORHS team that made it to the national finals of the 2012 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology in Washington, D.C.
ORHS student Lois Johnson said she has lived in Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
“I feel more safe at Oak Ridge High School than I do anywhere else,†Johnson said.
Not everyone was critical of Baughn, though. One of the dozen speakers at Monday’s Council meeting was Brenda Fellner, a former kindergarten teacher at Linden Elementary School.
“These are our top-notch students,†Fellner said, suggesting other students might have different perspectives. “There is a problem in Oak Ridge. We have had a problem before.â€
She said the school system and City Council need to work to make it better.
Baughn, who used a May 9 memo from the city’s police chief to allege that the schools have been obstructive, remained silent as she was lambasted during the afternoon press conference and Monday evening City Council meeting. But after the Council meeting, she was upbeat. She said she was encouraged by the discussion of school issues that had been triggered by her letter to new superintendent Bruce Borchers and the subsequent turnout at the City Council meeting.
The last time there was a crowd like that at a Council meeting, Baughn said, was in December, after she asked Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan to drop his bid for a third term as mayor and consider resigning. That proposal also generated vigorous debate.
Baughn was a new Council member at the time. She was one of five candidates who ran for three seats in the Nov. 6 election, and she received the second highest number of total votes in November, collecting more votes than anyone else in Anderson County.
Still, a few residents at Monday’s Council meeting questioned Baughn’s “confrontational style” and the use of her Council seat to launch an “attack†that reverberated around the region.
“When I read it, I like many others, was very, very disappointed,†said Cathy Toth, whose son A.J. was also a National Merit Semifinalist and competed with Andress in the Siemens Competition. “That is so deeply damaging.â€
In online comments, however, others have applauded Baughn for raising what they consider legitimate concerns about drugs and violence, and taking on the establishment, or, as a few have called it, the “good old boys network.” Baughn said her supporters, including parents and staff who haven’t yet agreed to publicly air their concerns, are “glad that someone finally said something.â€
Note: This story was updated at 7:05 a.m. July 10.
Andrew Howe says
I don’t like when I feel I’m forced by my conscience into saying something truly negative, but I’m feeling that now.
Various actions by the ORS side seems to be political maneuvering designed to make Baughn look bad. At least that’s my take on it from the outside. As always, I absolutely request anyone to correct me by bringing me data that can sway my opinions.
I’ve heard and read folks complaining that Baughn was just looking for attention. However, I don’t believe she organized her own press appearances. I think she was called by news agencies for that, although she may have worked with local reporters by initially alerting them to her formal letter. However, it appears the ORS organized their own press conference and rounded up a group of people to come to the council meeting.
Of course, ‘attention’ is one of the key words in this issue, because people are saying they don’t want the schools to suffer from a poor public perception. That was a huge sub-text of the comments at the council meeting, and an understandable one.
But to truly minimize any negative perceptions, all the ORS had to do was submit a statement to the press saying “We appreciate anyone trying to help improve our schools. We do not think the situation is anywhere near as endemic as Baughn’s letter would imply, but we will do all in our power to investigate the claims, along with the ORPD, who we are present working closely with to ensure an improvement between our two organizations.”
But they didn’t. They did the exact things they are accusing Baughn of. They appear to have pandered to the press for attention for the express purpose of saying “we didn’t want this in the press” and “there’s nothing to see here.” They obviously didn’t talk to the actual people who are having problems, because they stuck to their guns about how bogus the claims are, while at the same time accusing Baughn of not doing her homework and having the facts straight.
Too much hypocrisy for me to keep quiet.
As for the term “old boys network”, it sounds derogatory, so perhaps I should eliminate it from my vernacular. Just a way to talk about a certain clique. Nothing wrong with cliques, nothing wrong with networks, nothing wrong with any of the people in the OBN either. However, cliques do often come with their own ‘style’ of doing things. This current issue seems to have illuminated one or two differences between styles, for good or bad, as all have their own time and place for being the ‘right’ style. Personally, I’m looking for officials somewhere in the middle of the road.
Perhaps we need to require all of our officials to stay up all night drinking together or something to get them to understand they’re all really on the same side.
Sam Hopwood says
She was critical of OR’s sacred cow, as was Chief Akagi and City Manager Watson’s memo. That is unforgivable in OR.
Shoot the messenger, circle the wagons, protect the image. That is the important thing.
We have a very good school system and we have always been obsessed with insisting that everyone in the world recognize that.
I am an ORHS graduate, my two children are ORHS graduates and I am gratefull for that.
The school system needs to cooperate with the police for the good of all. Let’s do that and move on.
Charlie Jernigan says
I’m not sure you can sincerely say that Ms Baughn did not drum up here own publicity events since she sent her accusatory letter to all the media outlets this side of the far horizon.
Since this has happened, she has been quoted as saying there are two sides to all these questions. It’s too bad that did not occur to her earlier.
If your issue is grandstanding, you should lean toward the school’s position since they were forced to respond to apparently unfounded accusations. If your issue is the truth, you should squarely be in the school’s position since the accusations have largely been effectively negated. If your issue is school safety, you should also be highly in favor of the work that the police and the schools have been engaged in under Chief Akagi and acting Superintendent Smallridge over the last months and now under Dr Borchers.
If you want another perspective, the other 6 city council members got their information from the police chief at the same time. They each developed a more credible position on the facts on their own initiative and/or were waiting for that second side to be heard in response to the police chief. Unfortunately Ms Baughn alone took it upon herself to exaggerate the issues raised by the chief without benefit of fact.
Markandna says
Can’t you point me to these “positions” or the “second side” because all I am hearing is “That’s not true, Oak Ridge is one of the best schools in the state” but I can’t find anyone actually speaking to specific concerns or why they are unwarranted. And again… if Baughn was repeating concerns expressed to her by others… even community leaders such as the Chief and City Manager… why is she the bad guy? It sure does seem like it is because she had the nerve to criticize the Sacred Cow more publicly as Mr. Hopwood said above.
Charlie Jernigan says
What I heard from the public comment portion of the city council meeting was that all the students, from the top down to a recovering failing student believe that the characterizations that the schools are like a failing inner city system with a culture of terror are simply wrong. Akagi never claimed that. Watson never claimed that. Only Baughn.
I also heard from school board members at that same meeting that a readiness plan had been developed and teachers had been trained to implement that plan despite the rumor to the contrary. We also heard that Akagi and Smallridge had been working together on remaining issues. One of the students also related that the police were often on campus and the SRO was always actively present.
And finally, the reality that anyone who is familiar with failing inner city school systems with a cultures of terror knows, those schools do not perform well. Ours does.
So if I can summarize, Baughn’s words are her own, only vaguely related to the Akagi memo. Her histrionic exaggerations have been refuted by parents and students who actually attend these schools, those who work in the schools and the school board members.with first hand knowledge of the issues and the efforts to resolve them.
If you want an conclusion, those who claim that the school board doesn’t play nicely with the city must face the consequence that there are two sides to that story as well.
Markandna says
Charlie, I think almost everyone agrees that the words Ms. Baughn used were over the top. Right or wrong we all tend to do that when we want to convey our passion about something. It’s easy to refute statements like “culture of terror”. What I want to see is someone refute or at least address what Chief Akagi and Mark Watson said as recently as May 9. “Too often in the past school year staff neglected to report potential crimes in a timely manner, or in some cases, at all” and this one “ORS staff have been reluctant at best and in some instances obstructive in their interaction with ORPD personnel”. Serious charges indeed. Much more serious than the well intentioned but perhaps misguided use of hyperbole by Ms. Baughn that everyone seems fixated on. (Renee’ Van Druff)
Charlie Jernigan says
Renee’, let me start with the reply that I made to you on Trina’s blog that she first removed and when I replaced it, she put it into the “pending review by moderator” trash can:
‘Sorry Renee’ for any confusion. My reply to
you seems to be MIA today. I will fill in as best as I can remember:
Does it matter to you that there are factual discrepancies between what Trina wrote to the media (and Dr Borchers) and what she knew at the time?
For example she knew on Mar 26th ( http://trinabaughn.com/2013/07/04/my-communications-with-dr-borchers-re-school-safety-issues/ )
from school attorney Giordano how complex the issues were and that Federal law (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) prevents the schools from releasing student information to the police without a subpoena. In addition on Mar 21st Dr Smallridge had written an informative message which ultimately was sent to the City Council and others within the city through a school board member that described the cooperation that was progressing between the schools and the police.
With this background Trina wrote her Jul 3rd letter about school non-cooperation alleging that the schools’ image was one of “an inner city school system run amuck†and that “a culture of terror has saturated our school system†based on a few conversations she has had with parents and teachers in private which can neither be verified nor addressed since the details cannot be revealed.
For me, the most disappointing aspect of this is that Trina by-passed the power of the City Council to resolve any of these issues despite having learned a lot of her information by her role as a City Council member. The Council has the power to identify the facts and resolve issues within the city without resorting merely to innuendo.
This is why I challenged her to commit to working through the Council to she was elected to assure that real issues are brought to light and addressed in the open as much as legally possible.’
That having been said, the May 9th letter from the city (via Chief Akagi) was a statement of issues at the beginning of the negotiation between the city police and the schools pending the arrival of Dr Borchers. Apparently they were not satisfied with Dr Smallridge’s explanation of the limits placed on the schools by the Federal FERPA law.
So while the work between the schools and the police is progressing, we have this distraction of Trina’s media event. Did it help? No. Did it hurt? I hope not, at least in the long run. Was it embarrassing? Yes, at least to the City Council and especially Ms Braughn who, IMO, has set back the improving relationship between the School Board and the City Council.
The meeting that Dr Borchers and Chief Akagi had set up before Trina did her thing, seems to have the process back on track.
johnhuotari says
Renee,
I know you posted your name elsewhere but please remember to include your real name with your comments, even if it’s at the end of your comment, as you did previously. Thank you.
Markandna says
I edited. Sorry about that. 🙂 Renee’ Van Druff
johnhuotari says
Thank you, Renee’.
Kay Williamson says
OK people, we all know what this is really about, MONEY, this will justified the scare tactic that OMG there is drugs, alcohol, and violence in the school. They want more SRO officers and if you all think THERE IS MAJOR DRUGS & VIOLENCE, Then we need an SRO in every school in OAK RIDGE, This way that will be at least 4 to 6 more officers that will be placed at the school. That would solve the problem. So tell me this, ARE YOU GOING TO ALLOW IT WHEN IT COMES TO RAISING THE TAXES, for this…. Just curious
Charlie Jernigan says
Let me understand you. Are you saying that Trina Braughn is using scare tactics to be able to vote for raising taxes?
Kay Williamson says
I believe some may have duped her into this action, they knew how she would react, and needing more SRO is something they have been saying all along… she constantly writes newspapers articles about OAK RIDGE, YOU throw the bait out there and see if she bites,, and of course she did…