Oak Ridge Today

Debate erupts over drugs, violence in Oak Ridge schools

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Oak Ridge Schools Press Conference

Keys Fillauer, Oak Ridge Board of Education chair, left, and Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan reject allegations by City Council member Trina Baughn that, among other things, there is a “culture of terror” in Oak Ridge Schools and students are at risk.

The fiery debate erupted last week, with one Oak Ridge City Council member alleging drugs are rampant in many schools, students are at risk of being assaulted, and a culture of terror has saturated the school system.

It continued this week, with two school officials and the city’s mayor holding a press conference at the Oak Ridge High School to rebut the allegations. They were joined by a throng of several dozen administrators, officials, and teachers.

Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn sparked the debate last week in a letter to new school superintendent Bruce Borchers, who started June 18. Baughn told Borchers that countless parents, school staff, and students have shared stories with her that paint a picture of an “inner-city school system run amuck.”

“I’ve heard so many stories of assaults occurring at the middle schools and high school that I am heartbroken,” Baughn said.

But a half-dozen other local officials—including City Council members, school board members, and teachers—said they haven’t heard many complaints, if any, from parents regarding drugs and assaults in Oak Ridge Schools. They called some of Baughn’s claims inaccurate, exaggerated, or untrue. [Read more…]

‘Culture of terror’ in Oak Ridge schools, Council member says; not true, education leader says

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Note: This is a copy of a letter that Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn sent to new Oak Ridge Schools superintendent Bruce Borchers. It is followed by a response from Steve Reddick, who teaches American history to eighth-grade students at Jefferson Middle School and is co-president of the Oak Ridge Education Association.

Here is the letter from Baughn to Borchers:

Trina Baughn

Trina Baughn

Dr. Borchers,

Shortly after the Sandy Hook tragedy, Oak Ridge city and school officials began discussing the need to shore up security within our schools. Your Board of Education (BOE) immediately demanded the city provide an officer in every school while simultaneously declining our police chief’s offer to conduct the risk assessment needed to identify facility and policy vulnerabilities. Our police department has also repeatedly offered to provide safety/emergency training to your staff. All of those offers have been declined by members of your administration.

Seven months later, we have made very little progress. At the center of it all is a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that was initially drafted months ago to address the lack of cooperation by school administrators and their frequent interference with requisite police work. I am told that school attorneys refuse to agree with the parameters that, at their very core, enable our officers to uphold the law and maintain the safety and security of the public.

The incidents that have led to the need for this MOU are disturbing and give me reason to fear that the original emphasis of protecting our children from external threats is less of a need than that of protecting them from internal threats. [Read more…]

TBI Study: Simple assault the most frequent domestic violence offense, females more likely to be victims

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NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday released a report focused on domestic violence that occurs between family members entitled “Family Violence Study 2012.” The study is based on offenses reported by law enforcement agencies to the Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System in 2012, where approximately 14.5 percent of all crimes reported were domestic in nature.

Of the 2012 domestic violence offenses, 41,708, or 50 percent, were reported as having a familial victim-to-offender relationship. It is important to note that the parameters of the study did not include certain valid domestic violence relationships particularly boyfriend and girlfriend, which was the most commonly reported domestic violence relationship in 2012. The study also gives insight into the influence of drugs and alcohol in familial violence. [Read more…]

Robbery suspect allegedly threatened to kill Kmart cashier

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Devlin Seth Walker

Devlin Seth Walker

Arrested Friday, the suspect in two recent robberies at the Kmart  pharmacy in Oak Ridge allegedly used misspelled hand-written notes to demand drugs and money and threaten to kill cashiers, authorities said.

In the first robbery, which occurred on Feb. 26, suspect Devlin Seth Walker, 34, of Lancing in Morgan County, allegedly handed a cashier a note that said, “Give me all your money and a bottle of Percoset or I will kill you,” according to arrest warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court.

The cashier handed Walker the money from the register and the note, the warrants said. Walker then allegedly walked around the pharmacy counter and threatened the pharmacist. The pharmacist was allegedly forced to open a locked cabinet where the narcotics are stored, and Walker took four bottles of 10mg oxycodone from the cabinet and fled the store, said the warrants, filed by Oak Ridge Police Department Officer John Criswell.

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Faith column: The things that stalk us

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With the advent of the Internet, you might have already noticed that intelligent, rational conversation about religion is increasingly becoming a thing of the past. Online identities have been constructed somewhat anonymously and disconnected from any real “community,” thereby allowing many to pass off opinion for fact, with an absence of accuracy, honesty, and personal integrity.

For example, I cannot begin to count the number of times I have read this on an Internet message board: “Religion kills more people worldwide than anything on the planet.”

Of course this is nonsense, but proof that if we repeat something loud enough and frequently enough, we can get a majority of people to believe it. Let’s leave the debating about what is “religiously-motivated” violence versus “ethnically-motivated” violence for the scholars to debate. The lines are always going to be blurry there, although I believe the evidence from these scholars would be more than enough to put this disinformation to rest. Still, we don’t even need to dig that deep—all we need to do is crack open a beer.

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