East Tennessee School Principal Orders Faculty To NOT DISCUSS CONCERNS With Elected Officials, Later Walks Back Directive

Image Credit: Jefferson County Schools

The Tennessee Conservative [By David Seal] –

Ben Willings, Principal of Rush Strong School in Jefferson County, Tennessee advised his staff on July 30, 2025, during teacher in-service to not contact elected officials with concerns including ethics concerns about school administrators. 

Ethics complaints about administrators are to be reported to the Elementary and Middle School district supervisors and administrators according to the slide. 

The image that Willings projected on a screen in front of his faculty is pictured below.

The slide was part of a boilerplate in-service presentation addressing concerns and grievances within the school system, specifically Rush Strong School in Strawberry Plains. The message in the last sentence of the slide is crystal clear; do not discuss concerns or conflicts with elected officials and others at any time.

After multiple whistleblowers contacted the Tennessee Conservative News via third-party communication, the director of Jefferson County Schools was contacted for comment. The following is the exact text of the questions presented to the director of schools by the Tennessee Conservative News.

“On a graphic image projected in front of the Rush Strong faculty during in-service, Mr. Willings stated: “At no time should concerns or conflicts be discussed with other employees, members of the community or elected officials.”

Could you provide me with commentary as to any instructions that you or your Central Office staff have conveyed to Mr. Willings concerning this directive that he gave his faculty?

Could you also comment on why a building principal would discourage communication with elected officials concerning the ethics of school administrators?”

The Director of Jefferson County Schools responded as follows, characterizing Willings’ directive as a “mistake” but did not elaborate on Willings’ directive to not discuss ethics complaints about school administrators.

“Mr. Willings cleared up the misguided expectation that his presentation gave to some of his staff. I was not there but spoke to him and employees present. A mistake was made, he owned it, and sent an email to clear up his expectation.” -said Dr. Tommy Arnold, Director of Jefferson County Schools 

One of the whistleblowers, requesting anonymity for fear of losing their job, remarked that “the message was clear; do not contact elected officials with your concerns; with that statement made, you can’t go back and un-ring a bell.”

The text of Willings email to his faculty, to which Dr. Arnold referred, is pictured below. Essentially, Willings is saying that he did not mean what he said in his written PowerPoint slide.

Just after the current chairman of the Jefferson County School Board, Joshua Cameron, was elected as chair in September 2024, he quoted Article 1, § 23 of the Tennessee Constitution, which expresses our founder’s intentions that we have a sacred right to communicate with our elected officials.

“That the citizens have a right, in a peaceable manner, to assemble together for their common good, to instruct their representatives, and to apply to those invested with the powers of government for redress of grievances, or other proper purposes, by address or remonstrance.” – Article 1, § 23, Tennessee Constitution 

The Tennessee Conservative News will continue to follow this news story and report accordingly. We would like to thank our confidential whistleblowers that came forward and called this to our attention, and express appreciation to the Jefferson County School System for the expedited production of documents for this report.

About the Author: David Seal is a retired Jefferson County educator, recognized artist, local businessman, 917 Society Volunteer, and past Chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party. He has also served Jefferson County as a County Commissioner and is a citizen lobbyist for the people on issues such as eminent domain, property rights, education, and broadband accessibility on the state level. David is also a 2024 winner of The Tennessee Conservative Flame Award & has received an accolade from the Institute For Justice for successfully lobbing the TN legislature to protect property rights. David can be reached at david@tennesseeconservativenews.com.