Oak Ridge Today

Pedestrian struck by vehicle on South Illinois Avenue on Monday

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An Oak Ridge woman was hit by a vehicle driven by an Oak Ridge man on South Illinois Avenue on Monday, authorities said.

Elaine Emerson, 41, was struck near Badger Avenue at 6:12 p.m. Monday by a vehicle driven south by Brandon Luke, 42, the Oak Ridge Police Department said.

Emerson was transported by ambulance to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, where she was listed as being in critical but stable condition, ORPD Lt. Robin Smith said. No charges are expected to be filed against the driver of the vehicle.

Police chief declines to comment on use of his memo in Baughn’s letter

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James T. Akagi

James T. Akagi

A memo he wrote in May was used by an Oak Ridge City Council member who wrote a controversial letter that has sparked a heated, week-long debate about drugs and violence in the city’s schools.

But Oak Ridge Police Chief Jim Akagi declined to elaborate on the memo on Monday—or discuss how it was used in the letter published last week by Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn. Her letter, which also relied on conversations with current and former school staff members and parents of students, alleged drugs are rampant in many schools, children are at risk of being assaulted, and a “culture of terror” has saturated the system.

Asked for his views on the letter, which was sent to new superintendent Bruce Borchers, Akagi said he couldn’t comment. [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…]

Responding to traffic delays, Y-12 asks for volunteers to start work later beginning July 8

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Y-12 National Security Complex Traffic

Responding to morning traffic delays, particularly at its east entrance on Bear Creek Road, the Y-12 National Security Complex has asked some employees to volunteer to start their work day later after July 8.

Responding to morning traffic delays at its entrances, the Y-12 National Security Complex has asked some employees to volunteer to come into work later in the day starting July 8.

Significant traffic delays have been an issue since a lost driver who did not have a badge or permission to be at Y-12 said she was waved into the nuclear weapons plant on June 6.

Since then, Y-12 officials have said the plant has changed its approach to checking badges at the east and west gates. The more rigorous security checks are “here to stay,” B&W Y-12 General Manager Chuck Spencer said in a June 27 message to employees.

But the new procedures have led to traffic delays, particularly at the east entrance between 5:15 and 6:15 a.m., when vehicles can back up as far as the former Dean Stallings Ford on South Illinois Avenue. [Read more…]

Police allegedly find guns, drugs during search of Nevada Circle home

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Police searching a home on Nevada Circle on Wednesday night allegedly found a half-dozen guns, about 32 grams of what appeared to be marijuana, a small amount of purported crack cocaine, and a tablet identified as Roxicodone, authorities said.

The Oak Ridge Police Department was armed with a search warrant that said all controlled substances found in the home were to be seized as evidence, according to arrest warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court. [Read more…]

Man accused of fleeing from police, driving toward three parked officers

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Laphonso R. Porter

Laphonso R. Porter

An Oak Ridge man is accused of fleeing from police on Wednesday night, driving toward three officers parked in Scarboro, wrecking a car, and running on foot before being arrested.

Laphonso R. Porter, 23, remained jailed in the Anderson County Detention Facility on Thursday night. He has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault, two counts of evading arrest, driving on a suspended license, and reckless endangerment, according to arrest warrants. [Read more…]

ORPD offers Junior Police Academy for students; register by July 5

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Oak Ridge Junior Police Academy

Oak Ridge Junior Police Academy students at the Law Enforcement Innovation Center in 2012. (Submitted photo)

The 2nd Annual Junior Police Academy will take place from Aug. 5-9. This is the last week before Oak Ridge Schools start the new school year.

Cadets will be given presentations by several Oak Ridge Police Department officers on topics that include K9 and SWAT operations, traffic stops and more. Cadets will also visit the prestigious Law Enforcement Innovation Center, Anderson County Detention Facility, and Anderson County Criminal Court, and they will be given a presentation by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office’s Aviation unit, who will fly in on a helicopter.

The academy meets from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. each day. Those who are eligible to attend are students entering high school this year or returning to high school, or those that graduated this May. Private school and home-schooled students are welcome as well. [Read more…]

Police: Boy hit by car while riding bike out of driveway, across West Outer

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An Oak Ridge boy was hit by a car while riding a bike from a driveway on West Outer Drive across the road toward Waltham Lane on Thursday afternoon.

A witness said the eight-year-old boy rode in front of the car suddenly, not allowing the driver any time to stop or evade the collision. [Read more…]

Four AC units swiped from OR church

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Information from WYSH Radio

Oak Ridge Police are investigating the thefts of four air conditioning units from a church in two separate incidents.

Three Sundays ago, members of the West Village Christian Church discovered that the lines to a pair of AC units on one side of their building had been cut when they went to see why the air wasn’t working. The next day, those two units were stolen. [Read more…]

Three officers, one supervisor suspended after unbadged driver enters Y-12

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Security Officers at Y-12 East Gate

Security police officers stand guard during an August 2012 peace protest at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex at Bear Creek and Scarboro roads.

Four guards have been suspended at the Y-12 National Security Complex after a woman who did not have permission to be at the nuclear weapons plant drove through the main entrance on Thursday morning and was stopped a short time later, a federal spokesman said Monday.

The woman, who said she was looking for a new, low-cost apartment complex, followed morning commuters through the east gate at Bear Creek and Scarboro roads and drove unhindered through the plant before she was stopped by security officers at the west gate, according to an Oak Ridge Police Department report. Brenda L. Haptonstall, 62, told ORPD Officer Roy J. Heinz that she thought there must have been a crash at Y-12 because there were “nice officers waving her through with illuminated flashlight cones,” the report said. [Read more…]

UT Medical Center can’t comment on condition of child hit by car in Oak Ridge

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The University of Tennessee Medical Center could not provide information on the condition of an eight-year-old boy hit by a car on Wednesday afternoon in Oak Ridge—or even confirm whether the child was at the hospital.

An Oak Ridge Police Department report said the boy was hit by a 1998 Toyota Camry in the parking lot of British Woods Apartments at about 4:35 p.m. Wednesday. The four-door sedan was driven by Zhenfeng Han, 33, who lives at the apartment complex on Briarcliff Avenue. [Read more…]

Report: Teen driver didn’t see stop sign due to tree limbs before hitting bus

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Oak Ridge Preschool Bus Crash

No students were reported to be injured after a Monday afternoon collision between a school bus and a car in Woodland.

The 17-year-old driver who hit a school bus in Woodland on Monday afternoon said he did not see a stop sign at the intersection of Northwestern and West Gettysburg avenues due to tree limbs, and he failed to stop before colliding with the bus, authorities said.

The Clinton teenager estimated he was traveling at about 30 mph in a 1997 Volvo 960 sedan as he drove west on West Gettysburg Avenue just before the 2:16 p.m. crash, according to an Oak Ridge Police Department accident report.

The bus driver, Yvonnda Smith McNair, 60, of Oliver Springs, told ORPD Officer Leslie Miller that she was driving south on Northwestern Avenue when the Volvo failed to stop and hit the bus, owned by contractor First Student Inc. [Read more…]