Clarification and Amplification

In the news article titled, “Former DHS SRO Accepts Plea Deal for 8 Years in Prison,” published in the Aug. 17, 2023, edition of this newspaper, a reference to a “Dresden High School softball coach,” who was given a letter by the school’s principal, Scott Killebrew, notifying the person in question on March 3 of an investigation into an unethical and inappropriate relationship with a student, was not a member of the high school’s softball coaching staff, as noted in the article from information obtained through the TSSAA website. The person in question is Luke Downard, the school’s former short-term baseball coach and non-certified employee of the school system. A records request did verify the coach was not rehired by the school after the investigation.

Further, in the same article, the last sentence reads, “A Freedom Of Information Act records request was given to Frazier and the school board for termination records of faculty for the past three years to see if there were other employees of the school terminated for similar incidents, but Frazier did not comply with the request.”

To clarify, the reporter was referencing a public records request she sent to former Weakley County Director of Schools Randy Frazier and a school board member in the Spring of this year when she was employed with the Weakley County Press. She was asked to halt investigations involving the Weakley County School System by The Press’ publisher and owner, Victor Parkins, after he met with Randy Frazier following her public records request. The request for personnel records was never honored and the pursuit of those records was terminated.