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The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
A former Tennessee Principal and author of a new blog called TOO Consumed is speaking out about her experience in Sumner County’s public school system.
Kathy Vinson dedicated nearly thirty years as an educator to the school district, with the last six as Principal of Title 1 School, Benny Bills Elementary. Vinson’s leadership led to growth in the school’s testing scores for the first time, but instead of any reward for her hard work and investment in the school and community, she was given a demotion to Assistant Principal at a different campus.
Vinson chose to resign instead.
Public schools are designated as Title 1 based on the percentage of the student body qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch and receive federal funding in order to support low-income students who are at risk of failing to meet state standards. Title 1 schools use these funds to improve the quality of their schools by providing supplemental instruction for at-risk students which is research-based.
Throughout her career in the district, Vinson continued to invest in her own education in order to further serve the children who walked through the doors of the schools at which she worked in her county, receiving excellent scores on evaluations throughout her years as an educator. But any positive change she was able to effect in recent years at Benny Bills, she says, happened despite “the complete lack of support from our central office staff and district leadership.”
In her resignation letter, Vinson wrote:
“Throughout my years as principal, I have done nothing but advocate for the needs of Benny Bills Elementary. Over the past six years, I have watched behavior issues grow. Each year at the end of the school year, I have staff come to me in tears because they are choosing to leave Benny Bills Elementary for their own mental well-being or because they do not want their own children to attend BBE. Teachers come to school each and every day only to be yelled at, hit, kicked, or even spit on; however, they still sit down with these students and hug them, talk to them, and work to teach them. They work together to try to find ways to reach these difficult students and move them forward in spite of the enormous obstacles that are placed in their path. Students have to exist in their classrooms in fear of another student’s explosive behavior. They have to endure room clears because of extreme behaviors. They themselves are often the ones who are hit, kicked, or hurt during these outbursts; however, this year, in particular, I have repeatedly been told it is a “tier I problem” when in reality, I see it is so much more than that.“
Told she was “too consumed” with the school and its students, Vinson maintains that she advocated for teachers and students for good reason.
“My school had an average population of 700 students. Of those 700 students, we had over 200 students, about 1/3 of the population, classified as special education students, meaning they each had an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). These IEPs are managed by the special education team which was made up of 4 resource teachers, 2 CDC teachers, 2 PreK teachers, and 2 SLPs (speech-language pathologists). With each IEP there come meetings… at minimum, you have 1 annual meeting; however, if a student is going through the referral process, you have 1 meeting to get permission to test, 1 meeting to review test results, and 1 meeting to create the IEP. If you need to add/change services, that is another meeting, and depending on what is being proposed, it can be more than that. Additionally, parents can call an IEP meeting at any time if they so choose. At each of these meetings, there must be a regular education teacher, a special education teacher, and either the principal or assistant principal. With the number of special education students enrolled in the school, every single classroom has multiple students with IEPs; some classrooms have as many as 1/3 of the students with an IEP. An IEP meeting might last 15 minutes, but many last as long as 3 hours depending on the services a child receives and who attends the meeting. During the 23-24 school, my school conducted approximately 475 IEP meetings… 475. There are 180 days of school.
Here are some questions to ponder…. How are the students with IEPs receiving services when their special education teacher has to conduct and attend this many IEP meetings? How is administration able to maintain a presence in the building and conduct required observations when they are attending this many IEP meetings? With a caseload this large, when do the special education teachers have time to plan, write IEP meetings, collect data, progress monitor students, etc? These issues were just a few of the things that I was consumed with as a principal.”
There has been an uptick in inappropriate behavior over the last few years among students, Vinson reports. Since COVID-19 especially, the problem has become worse. Vinson says that the limited social exposure that children were subjected to during the pandemic has led to an increase in aggression toward each other and toward teachers. The increase in screen time that this cohort of children was allowed to have has also resulted in a lack of fine motor skills that is needed as children begin school. This is not peculiar to Sumner County by any means. Such observations have been noted across the United States.
Those children who were babies, toddlers, and preschoolers during the pandemic have now begun their formal educational journey and there are signs that many of them are not only lagging academically, but also developmentally, with children from lower income families most at risk.
In the 2023 Tennessee Educator Survey, only 21% of educators at Benny Bills responded. For results to be published, at least 45% of teachers must fill out the survey. However, among K-8 teachers in Sumner County, approximately half reported spending 15% or greater of instructional time managing the behavior and discipline of students every week, on par with data statewide. Even more teachers of Pre-K public school students in Sumner County – 75% – reported spending 15% or more of class time dealing with the same issues.
Vinson says that many children are entering school for the first time having experienced various types of trauma, with its effects bleeding over into the time they spend at school. Vinson recounted that she had many students, for example, who lived with their grandparents or other relatives due to parental incarceration. A particularly heartbreaking anecdote from Vinson was the acknowledgement that she had seen more children in Kindergarten and 1st grade coming in to her school feeling suicidal than she had ever seen before in her career.
Another alarming trend, according to Vinson, is elementary aged children coming to school “reeking of pot.” Vinson says she saw a significant correlation between these children and inappropriate behaviors, noting that they sometimes could not stay awake during class.
Children exposed to secondhand cannabis smoke can experience psychoactive effects, like feeling high. Recent studies show strong associations between children having detectable THC levels – the compound responsible for the “high” – and those using cannabis in the home. While more research is needed to fully understand how this exposure negatively impacts the health of children, current research shows that cannabis use by adolescents can impact brain development, causing problems with memory, attention, and motivation – all necessary for learning.
To help all struggling children under her supervision, Vinson created care groups, run by 10 to 15 teachers on their own time. When she became Principal at Benny Bills there were 2 counselors at the school, 1 full-time and 1 part-time, and when she left there were 2 full-time counselors, but it wasn’t nearly enough she says.
“I asked for a 2nd [Assistant Principal] for years, a behavior specialist, more teachers to keep lower ratios in classrooms, etc. As principals, we could make requests, but decisions for staffing were ultimately decided by student numbers, not by the needs of the school. The only schools getting behavioral specialists are the schools able to fund it themselves through Title funding; however, there is no “job description” for this role, so when someone hires a behavioral specialist, you are making it up as you go. The district does not track behavior incidents like they do test scores.”
Vinson says that she was told that she, and the teachers she worked with, were “over-identifying” students that might need an individualized education plan or IEP. The core group of students responsible for aggressive outbursts, bite marks, bruises, and scratches were a mix of IEP students and students from the general population. Of these students, the ones transferred to an alternative school functioned much better in that environment. The smaller, extremely structured setting with individualized attention led to an increase in learning and less behavioral problems.
Vinson says lower ratios are sorely needed in classrooms, which is the exact opposite of what one Tennessee lawmaker tried to do during the 2023 legislative session.
Sumner County Schools threatened Vinson last week with legal action regarding a blog post she published highlighting the struggles that she and her staff regularly encountered.
On July 1st, a new law went into effect that impacts how schools handle assaults on educators. Vinson says teachers desperately want more support in the classroom. Will this make a difference? Only time will tell.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
