Posted on 11/08/2005 12:13:21 PM PST by ArmoredCav
Reports coming in of a male student having shot 3 faculty members with a rifle. Faculty now on Lifestar helicopters.
Kinda early to start blaming the victims of the shooting wouldn't you say?
Why not let them get out of intensive care before you start suspecting the worst?
Sheesh...
Under 17 -- thanks Congress for denying the justice system the opportunity to execute this young man. This country is lost.
I don't sense an epidemic yet. I think Campbell County and the country at large is no less safe with him in jail than with him executed.
I agree with the words but in a different context. I've lived in this area {a county away from the shooting} all my life just about. About 18 years ago a local man went to work one morning and two kids axed his wife and daughter minutes after he left. In another community a boy was relieved of his male organs. What I'm saying is there has been for years occult activity in the area. Every few years it surfaces.
I blame parents who let kids watch such trash as South Park, Bevis & Butt Head and the Simpsons. I mean after all Kenny dies many times and Satan is his mis understood friend???? Add this to the problems I mentioned in several previous post in this thread and there is major problems.
As for me my grandkids don't watch trash. I favor Capitol Punishment for Meth Makers and I'm not one real big in favor of the War On Drugs. Next is close down Mega schools and start over on the education system giving local school boards control. A cap of 500-700 should be placed on the allowed size of any school. That IMO is a good plcae to start. Parents must regain control of their homes. The fools running the Tennessee Depqartment of Education and our lawmakers are pushing such trash as pre-K school meaning 4 year olds. I say close Kindergarten and let mom and dad raise them to a point they are mature enough to go to school to start with but that's just IMO. Hearts must be changed and turned before it's gonna get better.
Public schools...prison...it's about the same thing.
Been a teacher in an inner city high school in Miami, FL for nine of the last seventeen years. No big deal. Happens all the time. My school had a fight a couple days ago and one side showed up with a baseball bat and then the other side pulled a knife. Security handled it, no cops were in on the action.
I've known teachers who have been jumped and beaten badly...even critically. In all my years I have never been seriously threatened. There are a couple of reasons for that. First I usually start the year off right...by showing them my military photo album. Second, I tutor the football team after school so they can graduate. Anybody who messes with me gets an off campus visit (in da HOOD) from the offensive line.
ONCE in another school near the one where I currently teach I had to step into a fight where a young female teacher was being threatened. Thereafter the Principal asked me very politely to notify security so they could avoid a lawsuit from defensive actions I might take in the future. In this case, there was no impact on me in any way. However when I transferred schools to the one where I am currently in an even more ummmm challenging environment.....(deeper inner city) that story seemed to precede me somehow....
Maybe we should just ban teenagers instead. It would be just as effective and realistic as the barrage of gun laws on the books already.
Until they are ready to enforce the laws on the books, they don't need more gun laws. You'd probably get a lot of takers on banning teenagers. LOL I wonder why they don't ban alcohol. Drunk drivers kill more people every year than are killed by guns by a huge percent. Or, maybe they should ban planes because they kill people too. We know the REAL reason they want our guns. It's about control, and they know they can't as long as we have our guns.
From Yahoo news:
"Mr. Bruce, the one who got killed, had been a lieutenant colonel in the Army and came back to teach about eight years ago," Kohlmeyer said. "We shared an office for two years. He was very dedicated to the students."
Its just too bad. I wonder what happened to the kid for him to do such a thing?
It IS very poor compared to the rest of the country. Granted, compared to some parts of Eastern TN where the combined family income is 15K a year, 25K a year would not seem quite so poor. Eastern TN has a 50% illiteracy rate and a 75% highschool dropout rate. Beautiful, but you have to homeschool your children and shield them from the rampant ignorance that abounds here.
As for the schools, I'm surprised more teachers and administrators don't get shot in Eastern TN. They are an absolute disgrace.
And I doubt he will be allowed to attend the prom!
I think you are right about the mega-schools issue. They should cap the enrollment at about 400 and let the various high schools compete for students.
The should have college prep high schools and vo-tech schools that turn out kids that actually have some real welding, carpentry, plumbing, wiring or mechanical skills and are qualified to do something with their lives besides work in fast food.
It's sad to see these 18 yr old kids with a diploma and absolutely no useful skills and no future.
I think those numbers are a tad bit skewed. I would say more like 5-10% true illiteracy & closer to 5% {incapable of reading} and roughly a 25% drop out rate which is getting lower than it was in the 70's. If kids drop out in Tennessee before age 18 they can not drive. I have ran across maybe a dozen persons who can not read and I've lived in East Tennessee 45 plus years.
You can lay most of the problems in Tennessee Schools at the feet of lawmakers in Nashville. Have you heard about the new Pre-K yet program? The government day care service for 4 years olds that our governor and lawmakers are pushing? They are calling it school. IMO first grade should be a starting point at 6 years old till that time keep the kids home with a parent. Close down the Kindergarten programs. Year round school is another thing on most School Boards wish list. With places like Sevier County that depends on tourism for income that hurts as well. YUPIES wanting free day care and sitters is a lot of the problem also.
Most of the teachers in the area in question {East Tennessee} are OK. To take a teaching position in Campbell County they would have to be dedicated as most suystems pay better. Granted some teachers in this state do need other professions but thats true anywhere you go. I can't speak for Nashville or Shelby County systems though as I live north of Knoxville myself. I would homeschool due to the simple fact schools like the one in Jacksboro are simply too large. Add that to the mandates of the federal and state education departments and there lies the problems.
In the 70's the schools did operate in somewhat a college prep or Voc Tech mode. Kids who obvious were smart and not college material were not put through the same intensity level of classes as preps. It worked just fine until the feds and state started their testing nonsense. I went to a MEGA high school for 3 years. I nearly flunked. The Guidance Counselors pushed college prep. I transfered to a closer rural high school took a Voc Tech class and senior English. I was on the B honor roll. Actually my last 6 months I went on CO-OP {a great program now underused} and entered the work force 40 hours a week instead of attending school.
By the time a kid completes the 8th grade you know with all certainty whether they are college bound or Voc Tech. Nothing is wrong with either one. But until our educators realize this and act on it the mess will continue I'm afraid. A Voc Tech student literally waste four productive years in todays schools. All they need is about 2 hours basics at that point and the rest of the time should be devoted to vocational courses.
That's the system I remember. My husband repaired and rebuilt snowmobile, lawn mower and car engines in high school.
He now owns an independant auto repair shop with 4 bays and a paint booth. And builds and drives race cars at the local tracks.
Kids with the same bent these days have no chance to graduate from high school and walk into a job at a shop now a days. After 4 wasted years in high school they'll have to pop for a two year auto mechanics degree at a community college.
About the only thing they can do with their hands is work video game controls.
Neither gender leaves school these days with any basic skills in cooking, sewing or basic household repair, but they can all put a condom on a banana and know where to get birth control and abortions.
We only get one side of the story. The school administration will never admit that they have bullies in the system...that is until it's too late and someone gets hurt or killed. Read "Dangerous Schools: What We Can Do About the Physical and Emotional Abuse of Our Children" by Irwin A. Hyman, EdD.
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_4226557,00.html
Friend: Boy's image 'all for show'
By JAMIE SATTERFIELD,
November 10, 2005
JACKSBORO, Tenn. - He looked like a stone-cold killer, bloody, handcuffed and smirking.
But Ashley Nance is convinced it was all an act, one she's seen many times from this once-pudgy 15-year-old boy who, she says, got a kick out of looking bad.
"It was all show," Nance said of the image repeatedly aired on national and local television broadcasts Tuesday night of Ken "Little Kenny" Bartley Jr. being escorted into a cruiser.
"He'll act like he's a real badass," Nance said. "I'm sure he was really probably scared to death."
Bartley is accused in a shooting Tuesday afternoon at Campbell County Comprehensive High School in Jacksboro that left Assistant Principal Ken Bruce dead and two others - Principal Gary Seale and Assistant Principal Jim Pierce - wounded.
The teenager sits now in a Knoxville detention center, facing the toughest charge on Tennessee's law books - first-degree murder.
Left here in Campbell County is a community struggling with both grief and confusion. Who is this kid, residents wondered aloud Wednesday, and why did he do it?
Nance, an 18-year-old waitress who says she loves Bartley like a brother, can answer the first question but not the last.
"I don't know why he did it," she said. "I mean, his voice hasn't even changed yet."
Nance will tell you that Bartley is, like many teenagers, a contradiction.
He would sit at the water's edge, puffing on a cigarette like a toughie, while at the same time too scared to take a plunge into Cove Lake with his pals. He egged her car on a dare but immediately cleaned it up. He liked his reputation as "the bad kid" but just two weeks ago assured Nance he was trying to be good, pulling up his grades and avoiding drugs.
Nance said Bartley has been abusing drugs for several years, first smoking marijuana and later turning to prescription painkillers such as OxyContin. Although officials Wednesday would not discuss Bartley's criminal past, Nance and others said he was on probation from earlier juvenile court woes that included drug use and a violent encounter with his mother.
He was gone for a while, although no one seems able to say for sure where he went. Some say "reform school." Others say juvenile detention. He returned to his native LaFollette home this summer and, according to Nance, spent his time with friends, camping, swimming and hanging out at the Wal-Mart parking lot.
He entered Campbell County Comprehensive High as a freshman this year.
"He was a little fat kid," Nance said. "We always made fun of him, but he never took it bad. He never had a temper at all. He was funny. He was always cracking jokes."
On Friday, Nance said she overheard Bartley talking about drugs, a habit she thought he had given up.
Like most here, Nance does not know for sure why Bartley brought a gun to school. She suspects he intended to trade it for drugs and is certain someone dared him to bring it on school grounds.
She is convinced he never intended to shoot anyone. Instead, she said, someone tattled on him and, when confronted by Seale, he "freaked out."
"I've seen him getting scared before about getting into trouble," Nance said. "I could see him just panicking. He makes stupid mistakes. He's so immature. This is really hard. I still love him to death. I'm still here for him."
Bartley's family has declined comment. The teen's attorney, Mike Hatmaker, did not return phone calls.
Bartley lives with his father, Ken Bartley Sr., a man who himself is a contradiction.
The elder Bartley is a well-respected businessman and former LaFollette city councilman. He also shot a man to death in 1981.
The fatal shooting of Jack Stout, 33, inside the elder Bartley's business, Kenny's Pioneer convenience store, came after Stout accused the elder Bartley of sleeping with his wife, according to newspaper accounts.
The elder Bartley insisted he acted in self-defense because Stout attacked him. A Campbell County grand jury ultimately agreed, refusing to indict Bartley Sr., who had been charged with voluntary manslaughter.
I've lived here an entire year and a half and I've met hundreds of illiterates. Illiteracy is a rampant problem at our business where we have 350 employees. It didn't occur to us that illiterates would apply for jobs where it is necessary to read. We now have to screen for literacy upon hiring so as not to have to let them go after they are unable to read and follow a specification sheet.
As for the dropout rate here in the Bristol area, it IS 75%. I have no idea what it is in Campbell county. The children here have no intentions of finishing high school much less going on to college. Many are married by the age of 14 and it is accepted and considered normal for this area. Needless to say, my children are considered rather strange and are poked fun of since they have no intentions of "settling down and having babies" before they graduate college much less high school.
If you ever feel like time traveling, come to Bristol and stay awhile.
I think you are perhaps living some place you never wanted to live to start with maybe? I can take you into the poorest areas in this state {which is not the Tri-Cities area by any means} and even most all the kids there and a high percentage of adults can read and write. I can count on one hand the number of persons I have ever worked with in this state who could not read. I've worked in every place from nursing homes, 7-11's, some factory work on a temp basis, and yes even for a school system before. I am a retired milti-skilled trade professional BTW. By that I mean a strong work history in Industrial Electricity, HVAC, & refrigeration. But I wasn't above mopping a floor or for that matter digging graves by hand to put food on the table. Oh did I mention I also have a learning disability as well? C.A.P.D.
If you don't like living in Bristol or East Tennessee then I highly recommend Memphis as I hear the schools and government there is tops in the state :>} BTW show me the numbers you quote from official sources.
You don't know the area or the people. Saturn is in Tennessee and is relocating it's corporate head quarters here. Many Fortune 500 companies come to this state for our low taxes and work ethics. Very few leave except to go overseas. Even persons like Warren Buffett {sp} have sank a fortune into East Tennessee Companies with huge success. None complain about not having sufficent qualified workers apply for jobs. Right now the Tennessee job market is a workers market as far as plant work goes. If you don't like one job the place next door hires.
Never mind I've got the offical numbers for you. Bristol City Schools 9-12 grades. http://www.io.com/~jsm/nph-ap.cgi/http://www.k-12.state.tn.us/rptcrd04/system.asp?sysno=821&gobutton2.x=17&gobutton2.y=13 Not bad actually.
Grades 9-12: Additional Indicators
2003 2004 State Goals
Attendance 93.2% 91.8% 93%
Cohort Dropout 2.2% 8.8% 10%
back to top
Graduation Rate What's this?
2004
Graduation Percent 82.2% State Goal 90%
and check out this link for Campbell County
http://www.k-12.state.tn.us/rptcrd01/system.asp
I think that pretty much sums up how great the schools are in Campbell County.
Note the 66% beside the free/reduced lunch programs and the 75.6% beside the Title 1
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