Resident: 'No investigation' after 43 written complaints about administrator; family says student died by suicide

Candice Banister used the public forum at the June 5 Knox County Board of Education meeting to say the district did not investigate 43 written complaints about a school administrator and to recount the family's experience following her younger son's death by suicide.

Banister said she has raised the matter with the district for about a year and recounted that an employer conducted an investigation after she reported concerns in a separate employment context and provided a written acknowledgement from that employer's HR manager. "This is what employers who care … do. They acknowledge concerns, initiate an investigation, take appropriate action," she said.

She told trustees she and 43 stakeholders submitted written concerns about an administrator at her younger son's high school but that "no investigation, no action taken, no acknowledgment" occurred at the district level. "How do you know he has a clean record when you never even investigated him to find out?" she asked. Banister said under that administrator's leadership, "for 3 years, 6 students died by suicide." She asked whether the board had asked where the 43 written concerns are and whether HR has a procedure for dealing with such complaints.

The public forum portion of the meeting concluded after Banister's remarks; the transcript does not record a board response in the meeting minutes included in the record.

The statements are those of the public speaker and were presented in the board’s public comment period; the board did not make any administrative findings or responses in the recorded meeting transcript provided.