Image Credit: Rush Strong School / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By David Seal]-
Jefferson County, Tennessee school board members, director of schools, and certain county commissioners received a letter from an anonymous source alleging multiple accounts of wrongdoing by school officials at Rush Strong School in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee.
The detail-rich 4-page letter was received by the Tennessee Conservative News via USPS on October 3, 2025.
The letter alleges among other things:
- Misuse of public funds
- Hostile/unfair work environment
- Forgery/fraud
- Employee (teacher) intimidation
- Abusive language directed at teachers
- Favoritism
- Intimidation
- Unsafe environment
- Misuse of school property
Concerning forgery/fraud, the letter asserts that “the comptroller could easily pull records and signatures to confirm this.”
The opening paragraph of the letter, addressed to the Superintendent of Schools and two central office supervisory staff members, states as follows.
“We are coming to you with grave concerns of a hostile work environment that has been created by a staff member [name redacted]. We do not feel we can approach current administration as this staff member is protected by them….This is a problem that has been an ongoing battle for staff with no way to resolve without feeling we will be reprimanded or the repercussions of losing our jobs in the end.”
Earlier this school year, a directive was given to Rush Strong staff members during in-service training that seemed to discourage contact with elected officials concerning ethics complaints. That order was later walked back by the school administration as described in the following news report.
County Commissioner Rob Blevins (R-Strawberry Plains), who represents the district where Rush Strong School is located, confirmed that he had received the anonymous letter along with other county commissioners.
At the request of the Tennessee Conservative News, the director of Jefferson County Schools commented as follows concerning the whistleblower letter.
“I received this letter about 5 weeks ago. We have discussed the concerns with administration at [Rush Strong School] RSS. We would love to have the ability to question and follow up with the anonymous author of the letter. Many of the concerns and reported issues happened more than one year ago based on conversations with principal and supervisors and have been addressed.” – said Dr. Tommy Arnold, Director of Jefferson County Schools
Given the fact that multiple school employees felt compelled to write the letter concerning unresolved issues, the Tennessee Conservative News offered to serve as an intermediary to facilitate a meeting between the authors of the Whistleblower letter and school officials for the good of the school system, provided the school administration would guarantee in writing that no negative consequences would be imposed on the Whistleblower(s). That offer was declined by the director of schools in the following statement.
“Mr. Seal,
Thank you for your message. I would like to speak directly with the author of the letter or any individual who has first-hand knowledge of the information shared. I am not willing to write a letter authorizing you to act in an intermediary position or to guarantee that an individual will face no negative consequences related to information shared for which I do not yet know the full extent. I have taken the anonymous letter seriously and investigated the allegations.” – said Dr. Tommy Arnold
Independent of the whistleblower letter, other staff members, including teachers, have contacted the Tennessee Conservative News over the past 3 years concerning the work environment within Jefferson County Schools, many of which have chosen to seek employment in other school districts.
Since this publication started tracking the employee turnover rate in January of 2020, over 800 school system employees have ceased employment with the Jefferson County School System. That statistic is slightly skewed by the rapid turnover of substitute teachers.
Relative to turnover, parents too have contacted this publication expressing a lack of responsiveness to certain issues and have chosen to pull their children out of the public education system, a trend that has been observed across the state.
As of April 2025, the Non-Public Enrollment Report, filed with the Tennessee Department of Education by Jefferson County Schools, indicated that 881 students were being held out of the Jefferson County School System during the 2024-2025 academic year for private, religious, and home school options.
A copy of the Non-Public Enrollment Report is provided below.
The whistleblower letter closes with the following statement. “We as a group are asking you to please reach out to us, speak to us, let us speak without the fear of retaliation.”
The Tennessee Conservative News encourages other employees of the Jefferson County School System to come forward and contact us if you would like to contribute to this investigative process and reporting. Rest assured that any correspondence will be kept confidential.
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.
One Response
Seems a conundrum for the letter writers…most often the messenger gets shot. Why is it there are SO many problems with schools? Bravo to the parents who withdrew their children from the government propaganda institution. Good article.