Jamie Satterfield, Tennessee Lookout

An East Tennessee law enforcer who bragged about the “tune-up gloves” he wore when beating suspects to remind them “who the boss was” and shouted “I’m not sorry for what I’ve done” when a judge convicted him of civil-rights abuses is headed to federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Travis McDonough on Aug. 26 sentenced Anthony “Tony” Bean, 62, to six years in federal prison for beating two handcuffed detainees in two separate incidents — one while serving as chief of the Tracy City Police Department and another while chief deputy of the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office.

The two beatings were not isolated incidents, according to testimony in a June 2021 bench trial and a sentencing memorandum filed by Justice Department civil-rights trial attorney Kristen Clarke and Assistant U.S. Attorney James Brooks.

Anthony Bean. (Photo: Grundy County Sheriff’s Office)

“Instead of using his authority to protect and serve the citizens of Grundy County, (Bean) abused his power by roughing up arrestees who believed they had such little recourse that they did not even complain to law enforcement about their mistreatment by one of the community’s most senior law enforcement officers,” the memorandum stated.

“(Bean) chose as his victims restrained, intoxicated men who could not fight back,” the prosecutors stated in the memorandum. “The court heard ample evidence about the charged conduct … and uncharged conduct, the other instances involving similarly powerless victims, needless abuses of power and violence by (Bean) against anyone who annoyed him.”

A Bean subordinate, Deputy Brandon King, told McDonough in testimony that Bean wore “black gloves that he called ‘tune-up gloves’ (used) to carry out a butt whooping (to show arrestees) who the boss was,” court records show.

Even after his conviction, the 42-year law enforcement veteran refused to accept responsibility for his actions, shouting out as McDonough ordered him jailed pending sentencing, “I’m not sorry for what I’ve done,” court records show.

In the run-up to Friday’s hearing, Bean called his beatings of detainees “mistakes” and argued via his defense attorney that he was suffering mightily while behind bars awaiting sentencing and didn’t deserve further punishment.

“Bean has not seen a blade of grass or the sky since (he was jailed in February),” defense attorney Andy Peters Davis wrote. “As of the date of this writing, Bean has spent 191 days without experiencing the sun on his face or breathing fresh air, while being bombarded with the constant screaming of another inmate whose episodes last 48 to 72 hours (and) make it impossible for … Bean to sleep.”

‘Tune-up gloves’

Davis wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Bean has worked in law enforcement since age 21, including a three-year stint as a patrol officer with the Chattanooga Police Department.

In August 2014, Bean was the top cop in Tracy City, Tenn., which has a population of roughly 1,400 citizens, and showed up — with his wife in tow — at the scene of the arrest of an intoxicated man identified in court records only as “C.G.”

According to court records, “C.G.” was standing “handcuffed with his hands behind his back” when, after hearing the arrestee make a “derogatory” comment about Bean’s wife, Bean punched “C.G.” in the face with such force he knocked the detainee to the ground.

After fellow officers picked “C.G.” up off the ground and placed him in the back of a cruiser, Bean punched him again, court records stated.

“There was no need for force or anything like that,” Deputy King later testified.

Although several fellow law enforcers saw Bean punch “C.G.”, he was “the highest-ranking officer on the scene,” and none of them, including King, documented the abuse in arrest records or mandatory use-of-force reports, court records show. “C.G.” testified he did not file a complaint because he “kind of figured they’d just do as they always done.”

“What C.G. and others like him have seen happen in excessive force cases in Grundy County, as in other rural communities in East Tennessee and elsewhere, is nothing,” prosecutors Clarke and Brooks wrote in a trial brief. “The court heard evidence that (Bean) used unnecessary force against other victims and bragged about it … and, in fact, so frequently roughed up arrestees that he had special ‘tune-up gloves’ that he wore in preparation for such assaults.”

‘Nobody is above the law’

By 2017, Bean was serving as chief deputy for the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office, the second highest rank within that agency. On Dec. 30 of that year, Bean again showed up at an arrest scene with his wife in his cruiser, court records show.

In that case, a detainee identified only as “F.M.” in court records, had crashed his car after fleeing from police. Officers pulled “F.M.” from his car and placed him face down on the ground. He was “compliant” and handcuffed, court records stated.

“Bean approached F.M. angrily and said, ‘You almost killed me and my (expletive wife,’) and punched F.M. with a closed fist four to five times in the face,” the government’s trial brief stated.

Bean punched “F.M.” with such force that Bean broke his own hand, an injury a doctor later described in court testimony as a “boxer’s fracture.”

None of the Grundy County deputies on the scene filed reports disclosing Bean’s abuse of “F.M.” But two Sequatchie County Sheriff’s Office deputies who also witnessed the abuse reported the incident to their supervisors, ultimately leading to an investigation of Bean by the FBI’s Knoxville office. Bean was indicted as a result of the FBI probe in 2019.

“When an officer betrays the oath to protect and serve, the public is put at risk and the law enforcement community is tarnished,” Knoxville FBI Special Agent in Charge Joe Carrico said in a statement after Bean’s Friday sentencing. “The public has a right to trust that officers will do the right thing. When they don’t, the FBI remains committed to investigate and bring them to justice.”

Acting U.S. Attorney Trey Hamilton added, “Nobody is above the law. The Department of Justice is committed to holding accountable those officers who abuse their authority.”

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

A Tennessee man jailed pending trial on charges he fired on a federal building in Knoxville as part of his “war” on government agencies has died, court records show.

Assistant Federal Defender Sarah Olesiuk has filed notice in U.S. District Court in Knoxville that Mark Thomas Reno died Aug. 15 at the Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville, Ky. Reno’s cause of death is not disclosed in the notice.

Reno, 63, of Jefferson City was arrested last month on a federal vandalism charge for allegedly firing several rounds from a .22-caliber rifle at the John J. Duncan Federal Office Building in downtown Knoxville on July 3.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jill McCook ordered Reno jailed until trial, deeming him a threat to public safety. He was being held in the Laurel County Correctional Center in London, Ky., although it’s not clear why the U.S. Marshals Service, tasked with placing federal detainees in local jails, chose to house him outside Tennessee.

According to a motion filed by Olesiuk earlier this month, Reno “suffered a medical episode” at the Kentucky jail on Aug. 9. He was initially transported to a local hospital in London and then transferred to Ephraim McDowell “due to needing a higher level of care,” Olesiuk wrote.

After receiving an unspecified treatment, Reno was taken back to jail on Aug. 11, Olesiuk wrote. Three days later, Reno was airlifted to Ephraim McDowell.

“Hospital staff at Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center has reported to the medical staff at the Laurel County Correctional Center that Mr. Reno has a less than 50 percent chance of survival,” Olesiuk wrote.

Reno died less than 24 hours after he was admitted to the hospital, according to Olesiuk’s notice.

Federal building windows shattered

In the months before the shooting at the Knoxville federal building, Reno was captured on a recording by an undercover agent confessing that he attended the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and took steps to conceal his identity, including donning glasses, changing his gait and using a fake cane.

Reno told the same undercover agent that he was a member of a Catholic militia group known as the Church Militant Resistance and that there were plans in the works to target and destroy government buildings.

Reno’s statements to the undercover agent led the FBI to begin surveilling Reno in April. The agency also put a tracking device on his vehicle.

On the day of the Knoxville federal building shooting, the tracking device revealed Reno traveled to downtown Knoxville and slowly circled that building before parking at a nearby church. Reno’s vehicle remained parked at the church for nearly two hours.

Minutes before the shooting, Reno’s vehicle left the church and traveled to the federal building, where the vehicle slowed and shots rang out. According to the FBI warrant, security camera footage captured the driver of that vehicle pointing a rifle out of the window at the time the shots were heard.

The shooting shattered three outer windows of the federal building but did not penetrate the building. Reno’s vehicle sped away seconds after the shooting, according to the FBI.

Court records show Reno had a trove of guns and ammunition, the makings of homemade explosive devices and a bomb-making book and military training manuals in his home at the time of his July 18 arrest and had been using the Internet to search the locations of federal buildings in Tennessee.

Reno and his wife moved to Tennessee in 2020. He was receiving money from the federal government for an unidentified “disability” at the time of his arrest. McCook wrote in a detention order that Reno had a history of violence against loved ones, alcohol abuse and marijuana use.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

Video obtained by the Tennessee Lookout confirms that a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent stepped on the neck of a Grainger County slaughterhouse worker who was facedown on the floor with another agent on his back during a controversial raid in April 2018.

Additional videos and depositions obtained also show that federal agents seized, searched, cursed, handcuffed and detained all Latino workers at the Southeastern Provision slaughterhouse in Bean Station, Tenn., without any proof of wrongdoing but allowed white workers to go free without further investigation.

The Tennessee Lookout earlier this month filed a motion seeking the unsealing of video footage from the slaughterhouse raid that federal agents sought to keep under wraps. U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Seger unsealed the footage and related documents, including excerpts of deposition testimony, two days later.

The video and documents are part of a U.S. District Court lawsuit filed on behalf of Latino plant workers against federal agents and the U.S. government after the raid — which was supposed to be a search for tax-related records but was, instead, one of the nation’s largest workplace immigration raids in recent history.

The workers contend the raid was designed to bolster then-President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to get tough on illegal immigration.

Agents spent nearly a year planning the raid, including obtaining dozens of plastic zip ties to use as handcuffs, securing use of a National Guard armory in a neighboring county as a makeshift immigration detention center and lining up buses to transport Latino workers, but never sought to determine if any of the plant workers were in the country illegally before storming inside the plant with guns drawn, records reviewed by the Tennessee Lookout show.

“Despite knowing that ethnicity cannot be the sole factor supporting reasonable suspicion for a detention and (that) officers cannot target a group for enforcement based on their ethnicity, the case agents proceeded to plan for the mass detention and arrest of the plant’s Latino workers,” attorney Jeremy Berman wrote in an affidavit unsealed by Seger earlier this month.

“During the nearly one-year investigation of the plant, (agents) did not obtain any individualized facts or evidence that any specific plant worker was in the United States in violation of immigration laws,” Berman continued.

Depositions reviewed by the Tennessee Lookout show agents cursed at Latino workers, calling them “f**kers,” and mocked them.

Punch to the face; boot on the neck

Geronimo Guerrero was one of 104 Latino workers rounded up during the raid. In a deposition, Guerrero said dozens of men and women dressed in black shirts and armed with guns stormed inside the plant without warning.

Guerrero initially thought the armed intruders might be immigration agents — until one of them, later identified as U.S. Department of Homeland Security Agent John Witsell, punched him.

“He came and hit me in my face with a closed fist,” Guerrero testified in a deposition. “At that moment, I got confused because I thought if it’s immigration, immigration wouldn’t do that because I was not running and I was not a threat. At the moment when the officer hit me, I thought immigration doesn’t do that. So, I thought it was terrorists who had come in.”

After Witsell punched Guerrero, two more agents “grabbed me by my arms,” Guerrero testified. “They tried to push me against the wall but against the wall, there was a bucket of boiling water, so they pulled me to another wall, and they put me against another wall. I only said, ‘Why?’ I asked them why, but they never said who they were. They didn’t say anything.”

When Latino worker Jose Maurico Rodas-Guillen saw the armed men and women storm inside the plant, he ran toward an employee break room at the plant, video obtained by the Tennessee Lookout shows. Witsell and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Francisco Ayala tackled him to the ground.

With Rodas-Guillen face down on the floor, Witsell can be seen on the video punching him just before Ayala pulled Rodas-Guillen’s arms behind him and kneeled on Rodas-Guillen’s back. With Rodas-Guillen immobile on the floor with both arms restrained by Ayala behind his back, Witsell stepped onto Rodas-Guillen’s neck and kept his boot there for nearly 30 seconds, the video shows.

Ayala has acknowledged in a deposition that Rodas-Guillen posed no threat to either him or Witsell at the time Witsell stepped on the worker’s neck and conceded Witsell’s use of force was unnecessary.

Witsell is refusing to give a deposition or submit to questioning by workers’ attorneys and, as a result, is being barred from testifying either in his own defense or in defense of fellow agents. Witsell blames an unspecified medical condition for his lack of cooperation in the litigation.

The Justice Department has confirmed in court filings that the agency is no longer representing Witsell in the lawsuit. According to Justice Department filings, Witsell’s behavior during the raid was investigated by the federal Office of Professional Responsibility but records related to that investigation remain sealed. The Justice Department itself has refused to initiate an investigation into Witsell’s alleged civil-rights abuses during the raid, records show.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

A Tennessee appellate court says there’s nothing “inherently prejudicial” in grand jurors and jurors deliberating the fates of Black people from inside the “Confederate jury room” — where the walls are adorned with a Confederate flag, portraits of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate Gen. John C. Brown, and other Confederacy memorabilia — in a courthouse located in a town known as the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan.

In a ruling made public Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals is refusing to vacate drug convictions meted out to Black man Barry Jamal Martin by a jury that deliberated in a room awash in Confederal memorabilia.

The ruling directly contradicts a prior decision by a separate panel of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals issued in December 2021 that vacated the convictions of Black man Tim Gilbert based on the jury’s exposure to the same Confederate memorabilia. The same attorney — Evan P. Baddour — represented both men in their appeals.

The three-judge panel insisted in a footnote in its Tuesday ruling that it was not bound by the decision in Gilbert’s case but offered little explanation for why Martin was not afforded the same outcome.

“Unpublished opinions constitute only persuasive authority and are not binding precedent,” the footnote stated.

Like Gilbert, Martin argued his convictions should be struck down as biased because both grand jurors who indicted him and jurors who convicted him deliberated in a room decorated and funded by the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s chapter in Pulaski, Tenn.

The deliberation room was known as the “U.D.C.” room and had on its door the Confederate national flag and the United Daughters of the Confederacy insignia. The Giles County courthouse in which the room is located is in Pulaski, where the Klan was founded in 1865 and where white nationalist groups still hold rallies.

The “Confederate jury room,” as it is dubbed in the appellate opinion, has been the site for grand jury and jury deliberations in criminal cases since 1909. Giles County leaders voted to move the memorabilia to a museum and redecorate the jury room after the Gilbert decision was issued.

But the removal of the memorabilia did not come before Martin was tried in February 2020.

In Tuesday’s ruling, the appellate court panel concluded there was no proof grand jurors and jurors deliberating in the “Confederate jury room” were influenced by the memorabilia in Martin’s case or any other.

“While we certainly do not condone the presence of the memorabilia in the jury room, we conclude that (Martin) failed to show that any specific extraneous prejudicial information was improperly brought to the jury’s attention or improperly brought to bear upon any juror (or grand juror),” the opinion stated.

“As to the memorabilia being inherently prejudicial, we question whether the average citizen would recognize the portraits of Jefferson Davis or John C. Brown, the insignia for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, or the third national flag of the Confederate States of America,” the opinion continued. “We acknowledge that the Confederate battle flag has become a controversial symbol in this country … However, the flag in this case is not the Confederate battle flag.”

Giles County grand jury foreman and Pulaski historian Sam T. Collins testified at a hearing in Martin’s case that the “Confederate jury room” was created by the United Daughters of Confederacy in 1909.

“That U.D.C. room is that because in 1907, this courthouse burned,” Collins testified. “And then in 1909, it was moved back into. Between 1907 and 1909, there are groups of people in Giles County that contributed money, contributed time, did things to try to benefit the restructure of this courthouse. And the United Daughters of the Confederacy outfitted that room with the table, the chairs, and the things in that. And they were allowed to put their initials, U.D.C., on the door.”

The room is awash in Confederate memorabilia, including a framed Confederate national flag described in the appellate opinion as “the Confederate battle flag, a blue diagonal cross trimmed with white and bearing thirteen white stars on a red background, appears in the upper left of the flag.” In addition to photos and plaques honoring Davis and Brown, a letter from the United Daughters of the Confederacy is framed and hanging on the wall. It reads, in part, “As members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, we must continue to honor our Confederate Veterans, and share the history of the War Between the States.”

Both Collins and Circuit Court Clerk Natalie Oakley testified that no one, including grand jurors and jurors, has ever commented on or even paid close particular attention to the memorabilia.

“(When) asked if Mr. Collins had ever been concerned that a grand jury had been influenced in a way that would be prejudicial to someone of a different race … he responded, ‘Never,’” the court’s opinion stated.

In Tuesday’s opinion, the appellate court noted the memorabilia at issue “had been in the jury room for years, if not decades,” without any proof it prejudiced grand jurors and jurors deliberating in it.

“The memorabilia in the jury room did not pertain to (Martin), to any fact of the case, or to the procedural or evidentiary rules that apply to a criminal trial,” wrote Appellate Judge John W. Campbell Sr. in Tuesday’s opinion. “(Martin) did not call any jurors to testify that even a single juror closely observed the items at issue, read any plaques attached to the items, read the letter on the wall, or recognized the items as symbols of the Confederacy.

“In fact, no juror testified as to even noticing or being aware that the memorabilia was in the room,” Campbell wrote. “Likewise, no jurors testified that any juror mentioned the memorabilia during deliberations.”

A separate three-judge panel of the court held the opposite view of the impact of the memorabilia in Gilbert’s case.

“Although the government may choose to convey any message that it wants to the general public, it may not convey any message at all to the jurors in a criminal trial,” Appellate Judge James Curwood Witt Jr., wrote in the Gilbert opinion. “Because Giles County may not convey any message to the jury, we conclude that permitting the jury to deliberate in a room filled with Confederate memorabilia exposed the jury to extraneous information or improper outside influence.”

Martin can seek to appeal the ruling to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which declined to review the Gilbert decision earlier this year.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

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The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled the prayers of Washington state high school football coach at the 50-yard line after games are protected free speech and now a Tennessee teacher claims his expletive-laced social media posts on topics ranging from masking during the COVID pandemic to former President Donald Trump are also protected.

A lawsuit filed by former Sullivan County teacher Jeremy McLaughlin — suspended for three days without pay over posts he made to social media while off-duty — is set to become the first test case in Tennessee of the recent court decision that granted First Amendment speech protection to the prayers of Washington state high school football coach Joe Kennedy, court records show.

McLaughlin contends in his U.S. District Court lawsuit he became the target of a witch hunt by parents angered over his speech in support of virtual learning and pro-masking at a Sullivan County Board of Education meeting in August 2020.

After that meeting, at least four parents wrote letters to then-Sullivan County Schools chief David Cox and the school board, demanding McLaughlin be fired over posts McLaughlin made on Facebook in the months preceding his speech, according to documents reviewed by the Tennessee Lookout.

Cox suspended McLaughlin in September 2020 for three days without pay as a result, records show.

Former Sullivan County teacher Jeremy McLaughlin cites the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to permit a Washington State high school football coach to pray on the football field in a suit against his former employer.

“As you know, we recently received a number of complaints about you, and we have been processing and investigating the same,” Cox wrote in the suspension letter. “… You have every right to express your opinions during non-school hours, even on Facebook. But you still need to behave professionally in public settings and set appropriate standards for our students.

“I truly regret that it has come to this, Mr. McLaughlin. From your students’ comments, I have every reason to believe that you have been and will continue to be a good and valuable teacher for Sullivan County Schools,” the letter concluded.

After McLaughlin unsuccessfully appealed Cox’s decision, he quit his teaching post and filed suit. The case is set for trial before U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker in September. In a motion filed earlier this month, McLaughlin attorney Richard Colbert argues the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling in the praying coach case should apply to McLaughlin.

“The court rejected the notion that the school district could script whatever a teacher or coach says in the workplace,” Colbert wrote in the motion. “Here, (in Laughlin’s case), the (school system’s) purported justification for penalizing McLaughlin’s speech is even more tenuous. Kennedy’s speech was off duty at his workplace. McLaughlin’s social media speech was off duty away from his workplace.”

‘I was flabbergasted’

The August 2020 meeting of the Sullivan County Board of Education was a contentious one. The board was weighing several hotbed issues surrounding the COVID pandemic, including whether to resume in-person learning and impose a mask mandate.

Mandi Mittelsteadt’s daughter was the first to speak during the board’s public forum. She urged the board to reopen schools. She was followed by several adult speakers, all of whom supported the resumption of in-person learning.

McLaughlin later spoke against opening schools, arguing it wasn’t safe for teachers or students to return to the classroom because COVID cases were still running high months after the schools switched to virtual learning.

Mittelsteadt was upset, calling McLaughlin “dismissive” of her daughter, according to a letter she penned to the school board two days after the meeting.

“Imagine yourself as a 15-year-old student who made the brave decision to speak in front of the school board, then to have a teacher be dismissive toward you,” Mittelsteadt wrote. “Do you understand the bravery it took for her to get up there and then for that to happen?”

By her own account in the letter, Mittelsteadt took to Facebook to complain about McLaughlin and, after conducting a review of his social media posts, posted copies on her Facebook page of posts she found objectionable.

“I was flabbergasted by what I saw,” Mittelsteadt wrote of McLaughlin’s social media posts. “After my post went public, I have received more messages than I can count. Parents have reached out with their experiences with McLaughlin and, in the words of many, he is liked by the staff at (Central High), but he is hated and disliked by the parents and a lot of students.” (Editor’s note: Sullivan Central High School was merged with West Ridge High School in 2021.)

Two days after Mittelsteadt filed her complaint letter with the board, three people who saw Mittelsteadt’s Facebook post also filed letters of complaint against McLaughlin. The names of those three people are redacted from federal court exhibits reviewed by the Tennessee Lookout.

“I am sure you have seen these public Facebook posts and heard all about Mr. McLaughlin,” one letter stated. “I just want to share my complete disgust with this man, and I find it very disturbing a person like this is permitted in our school system.”

“I would like to be clear – I am a conservative,” another letter stated. “I don’t align with his thinking. However, I’m also not one who is threatened by anyone who feels differently than I … Initially, I stood in defense of him … I’ve since come to learn that Mr. McLaughlin is widely known for expressing his opinions and quite comfortable doing so. One parent informed me that (McLaughlin) had an entire presentation on the white board of Hillary (Clinton). How does that pertain to physics?”

Ron Burgundy and Donald Trump

The letter writers, including Mittelsteadt, included copies of the social media posts by McLaughlin they found objectionable. Cox relied upon those Facebook posts, described below, as a basis for his suspension decision.

“Please stop clapping for nurses and giving them a (expletive) raise. Sincerely, teachers,” McLaughlin posted on May 7, 2020.

“If you’re in public and you’re not wearing a mask, please know that you are part of the problem,” McLaughlin wrote in a June 25, 2020, post. “You don’t know if you have it. You don’t know if you’re spreading it. You are keeping everyone from moving out of this crisis because you are a spoiled, selfish child.”

That post included a meme depicting the fictional character Ron Burgundy in the Anchorman movies and a Burgundy’ catchphrase: “Go (expletive) yourself, San Diego.”

A July 2020, McLaughlin post stated, “Not wearing a mask doesn’t make you look strong. It makes you look like a selfish piece of (expletive). Saying you have a medical condition and you can’t wear a mask makes you look like a lying selfish piece of (expletive).”

That post also included a meme — a screenshot from a viral YouTube video unrelated to masking that shows a student seated at a computer station and pointing his finger and a second student smiling toward the camera.

“Saw a guy at Food City walking around in an iridescent blue fishnet face mask,” McLaughlin wrote in another July 2020 post at issue in the case. “Brother, you don’t look clever. You look like you’re wearing your side chick’s panties on your face.”

Former Sullivan County teacher Jeremy McLaughlin. (Photo: LinkedIn)

McLaughlin also posted in July 2020 a news story with a photograph of former President Donald Trump and the headline, “Trump floats delaying the November election. He does not have that authority.” McLaughlin wrote on that post, “Absolutely (expletive) not.”

In an August 2020 post, McLaughlin featured a copy of a tweet from a man who wrote, “My son is wearing a (Make America Great Again) cap and a Vote Trump 2020 button. He’s been spat on, punched and verbally abused. I hate to think what will happen when he leaves the house.”

McLaughlin wrote in response to the copy of the tweet, “Father of the year.”

Also in August 2020, McLaughlin posted a screenshot from a Sullivan County Schools online survey of teachers designed to allow educators to weigh in on whether they supported in-person learning or a “hybrid” combination of in-person learning and virtual schooling.

“Great unbiased survey of Sullivan County Schools teachers,” McLaughlin wrote. “Remember that coffins are priced by the cubic foot.”

In comments below the post, McLaughlin provided a link for the survey and wrote, “It’s interesting how survey gizmo uses cookies to track if you’ve responded or not. If you’re in incognito mode, it’s like it doesn’t even know that you voted. Weird! If you were a teacher and had the anonymous link, you should fill it out.”

“Well,” a woman posted in the comment thread. “Wouldn’t it be a shame if a non Sullivan County teacher were to get a hold of that anonymous survey? Hmm… Oopsies. My bad.” She then posted a screenshot of what appears to be her completion of the teacher survey.

Sullivan attorney: Suspension righteous

Attorney Chris McCarty, who is defending Sullivan County in the case, contends McLaughlin wasn’t suspended “because of (his) comments on matters of public concern,” which would be protected free speech.

“(McLaughlin) was suspended based on unprofessional behavior while utilizing social media,” McCarty wrote in a motion. “In addition to a multitude of posts with profane language and condescending memes, (the school system) discovered that (McLaughlin) had publicized (a Sullivan County Schools) private teacher survey and offered suggestions as to how the survey results could be manipulated.

“The decision to suspend (McLaughlin) for three days was based on the information that he posted to his public account that indicated his misconduct and unprofessional behavior, including the information he disclosed about the private (teacher) survey, his characterization of students and use of profanity,” McCarty continued.

“At least three non-faculty members participated in the survey using (McLaughlin’s) link and instructions,” McCarty wrote. “(McLaughlin’s) unprofessional behavior undermined a legitimate goal or mission of the school system and destroyed the relationship of loyalty and trust required of confidential employees.”

McCarty insisted in court filings McLaughlin’s suspension was “not influenced by any email from the parents that complained about (McLaughlin) or that requested, either implicitly or explicitly, that (McLaughlin’s) employment should be terminated.”

In a response to the high court’s praying coach decision, McCarty argued there is a vast difference between Kennedy’s prayers and McLaughlin’s posts.

“(McLaughlin) chose to share posts that placed young people in a denigrating light, with ones that even brought into question (McLaughlin’s) ability to keep his classroom open to varying points of view and to maintain a professional approach with students,” McCarty wrote.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

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The FBI has charged a Tennessee man who traveled to the Capitol Building during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection with shooting at a federal building in downtown Knoxville earlier this month.

Mark Thomas Reno is charged in an FBI warrant unsealed this week in U.S. District Court with damaging federal property for allegedly firing upon the John J. Duncan Federal Office Building on Locust Street in downtown Knoxville July 3.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jill McCook on Thursday ordered Reno, who lives in Jefferson City, Tenn., jailed without bond pending further proceedings in the case. He is accused of damaging three windows at the federal building — two in the lobby and one in the IRS office — in what the complaint describes as a drive-by shooting.

Reno, records show, was already the target of an undercover federal probe, though the reasons aren’t clear, when the shooting occurred. A tracking device had been surreptitiously placed on his vehicle prior to the shooting and, according to the FBI warrant, confirmed Reno’s vehicle circling the federal building at the time of the shooting.

FBI Agent Jessi Mann wrote in the warrant that Reno met an undercover agent at a “public event in Knoxville” in January. The agent did not say why. Reno had a second meeting with an undercover agent “at a public gathering in Knoxville” on April 26 as part of an “ongoing investigation.” The warrant does not detail the nature of the ongoing probe.

The April 26 meeting was secretly recorded by the agent. During their conversation, Reno told the undercover agent he “was part of a group called the Church Militant Resistance,” a Catholic militia group that vows to “resist actions that oppose the Catholic Orthodoxy and decency,” Mann wrote.

During the same meeting, Reno “made a number of statements about identifying targets and destroying property, including government buildings.”

“I mean, we have plenty of targets,” Reno told the undercover agent. “There should be no (U.S. Department of Education. Federally speaking, all education is done by the states why (are) the feds in on it at all? Department of Energy — don’t need it. I mean, the government’s here for defense, roads and privacy of communication. That’s all, that’s all it’s entitled to in the Constitution.

“It’s not entitled to do anything else,” Reno continued. “Get rid of it all … It’s (expletive) war. It’s war to the end now.”

Reno told the agent he attended the insurrection at the Capitol but used “multiple tactics to avoid detection, to include a fake walking cane, not bringing his phone and wearing glasses,” the warrant stated. “Reno further stated you should not bring your phone if you’re going to do something illegal because the government can track you.”

“I was there on Jan. 6,” Reno is quoted as telling the undercover agent. “I don’t sleep so good. You know, them (expletives) come for me, they ain’t going to take me alive … I’m claustrophobic … I’ll kill them. They’ll kill me. But I’m going to kill a bunch of them.”

Mann has since confirmed Reno “was, in fact, present outside the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021,” the warrant stated. “Reno can be seen holding a walking cane and wearing glasses outside the Capitol Building … To date, we have no evidence that Reno entered the Capitol or otherwise committed a criminal act (that day).”

Tracking device, pole camera key

The warrant says Reno was “placed under physical surveillance approximately 19 times” from April 20 to June 27. The FBI installed a “pole camera” on a utility pole near Reno’s Jefferson City home on May 13. McCook on June 13 authorized the FBI to place tracking devices on two vehicles registered to Reno.

Reno was not being physically surveilled at the time of the July 3 shooting at the federal building. According to the warrant, a security guard at the Duncan building “heard two loud bangs emanating from the front lobby area” at 1:45 p.m. on that day.

“The security guard observed two broken windows in the lobby area and a third broken exterior window in the Internal Revenue Service office of the federal building,” Mann wrote. “All of the damaged windows were double paned. The exterior pane on each of the three windows had a discernible point of impact with radiating cracks from the point of impact to the window frame. The interior pane of each of the affected windows was undamaged.”

Using footage from the pole camera, security cameras located at and near the federal building and tracking device data, the FBI determined that Reno’s Ford Fusion circled the federal building, briefly stopped “in the vicinity of the United States Attorney’s Office” nearby and then traveled to an unidentified church “attended by Reno.”

Reno’s vehicle left the church minutes before the shooting. At the time of the shooting, the tracking device showed Reno’s vehicle again circled the federal building, slowing down “in the vicinity of the first damaged window in the IRS office,” sped up again “and then immediately slowed to a brief stop in the vicinity of the second and third damaged windows in the lobby of the federal building.”

“As (Reno’s) vehicle was decelerating to a stop, what appeared to be an object pointing in the direction of the damaged lobby windows was briefly extended and then retracted through the driver’s side window,” Mann wrote in the warrant. “Based on my training and experience, as well as my participation in this investigation, it appears that Reno fired a projectile out of (his) vehicle to destroy the windows in the federal building.”

Reno’s vehicle then returned to his home in Jefferson City, tracking device data showed.

“A review of location history for Reno’s cell phone revealed that his cell phone remained in Jefferson City on July 3, which is consistent with Reno’s statement to (an undercover agent) that Reno does not take his cell phone in order to avoid detection,” the warrant stated.

The warrant against Reno was issued July 15 but remained under seal until Reno was arrested and brought before McCook earlier this week for an initial appearance.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

Federal agents accused of targeting, mocking and, in some instances, brutalizing Latino workers at a Grainger County slaughterhouse claim their lives will be endangered by the public release of video from the controversial raid, court records show.

Although the video is currently under seal, an investigation by the Tennessee Lookout reveals the footage appears to show a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent putting his boot on the neck of a Latino worker who was facedown on the floor with his hands behind his back and keeping it there for 24 seconds.

That same agent — U.S. Department of Homeland Security Agent John Witsell — punched another Latino worker in the head without provocation in the same April 2018 raid at the Southeastern Provision slaughterhouse in Grainger County, court records show.

In both instances, Witsell’s fellow federal agents agreed in deposition testimony reviewed by the Tennessee Lookout that his actions constituted excessive force.

Attorneys for Witsell and dozens of other agents involved in the raid are asking a federal judge to bar the public release of the video footage and any mention in the court record of what the video depicts.

“Filing the video and (workers’ attorneys’) inflammatory remarks in the public record has the potential to prejudice potential jurors, provoke retaliation and place the agents … at personal risk,” attorneys for the accused agents wrote in a motion filed last week in U.S. District Court.

“Publicizing the video and (workers’ attorneys’) disputed and inflammatory description of it has the potential to subject the individually-named officers to violence or threats of violence in an already tense environment,” the motion continues. “The duties performed by DHS agents are dangerous enough without being subjected to provocative statements that, intentionally or unintentionally, invite condemnation and potential retaliation.”

Agents insisted under oath before now-retired U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton they only intended to seek records supporting tax evasion charges against the slaughterhouse owner in the April 2018 raid. Instead, court records show, the agents for months had been planning what turned out to be the largest workplace immigration raid in Tennessee in more than a decade.

A half dozen Latino workers have since filed suit in U.S. District Court against the agents and the U.S. government, alleging a plot to violate their civil rights as part of then-President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to get tough on illegal immigration.

U.S. District Judge Travis McDonough has twice now in his rulings questioned the credibility and motives of the dozens of heavily-armed agents who sealed off roadways leading to the slaughterhouse, stormed inside the plant with guns drawn and immediately began targeting Latino workers — while allowing white workers and plant management to roam free.

McDonough ruled last year ample evidence exists to show federal agents concealed from Guyton the true purpose and scope of the raid, targeted Latino workers inside the plant solely based on their ethnicity, hurled race-based insults at them and used excessive force against at least two workers.

The judge ruled earlier this year the federal government intentionally withheld from Guyton and the workers the identities and involvement of several IRS agents in the raid in a ploy to shield those agents from the ongoing litigation.

‘Boot on the worker’s neck’

The attorneys who filed suit on behalf of a handful of the plant’s Latino workers are now seeking to certify the litigation as a class-action lawsuit, which would allow all slaughterhouse employees impacted by the raid to qualify for damages should a jury rule in their favor.

Motions seeking class-action certification and related exhibits, including video footage, are currently under seal, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Steger signaled in a ruling in late June he saw no basis for the documents to be hidden from the public. He gave attorneys for the agents two weeks to challenge that finding. Late last week, the agents’ attorneys responded with a motion specifically asking Steger to keep from the public the video footage included as an exhibit to the class-action certification documents.

The motion on behalf of the agents offered a clue about what that footage shows when arguing the workers intend to “analogize” what is shown on the video “to other national events that sparked destructive protests and physical violence against law enforcement.”

The Tennessee Lookout conducted an exhaustive review of the more than 600 documents and exhibits already public in the case and discovered the video the agents seek to keep under wraps captures conduct analogous to the police killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd in May 2020.

In that case, bystander footage showed Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of Floyd, a Black man who was facedown on the ground with his hands behind his back and complaining he could not breathe. Chauvin has since been convicted of killing Floyd through that action. Release of that video spurred protests across the nation and helped fuel the Black Lives Matter movement.

Deposition testimony from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Francisco Ayala discovered by the Tennessee Lookout in the court record confirms the video footage the agents want to keep hidden appears to show Agent Witsell engaging in conduct similar to that of Chauvin.

“And in this frame, (Witsell) has his boot on the worker’s neck, correct?” Southern Poverty Law Center attorney Meredith Stewart asked Ayala in the deposition.

Ayala responded, “It looks like that.”

“During the period of time when (Witsell) had his boot on the worker’s neck, the worker’s hands were behind his back, correct?” Stewart asked.

“Yes,” Ayala responded.

“And the worker was facedown on the ground, correct?” Stewart continued.

Ayala answered, “Yes.”

“So the … agent puts his boot on the worker’s neck at timestamp 9:09:35,” Stewart said. “The … agent removes his boot from the worker’s neck at timestamp 9:09:59, correct?”

Ayala answered, “Yes.”

“During this period of time, did you see a reason why the … agent needed to have his boot on the neck of the worker?” Stewart asked.

Ayala answered, “I didn’t even remember that. Looking at the video, there was no reason.”

“In your opinion, was it reasonable for the agent to place his boot on the neck of the worker?” Stewart asked.

Ayala replied, “No.”

“In your opinion, did the agent putting his boot on the neck of the worker constitute excessive force?” Stewart continued.

Ayala answered, “Yes.”

Judge: Agent barred from testifying

Ayala isn’t the only agent who, under examination by either workers’ attorneys or officials with the Office of Professional Responsibility for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, conceded Witsell employed excessive force during the raid.

Agent Frank Downey confirmed in an interview with OPR he saw Witsell hit another worker in the head without apparent provocation and, in a deposition, deemed Witsell’s use of force against that worker as excessive. Agent Bennett Strickland also confirmed the head strike in an OPR interview and called it “somewhat excessive.”

Witsell, though, isn’t saying anything. Records show he has twice refused to appear for a deposition in the case, citing an undisclosed “medical condition” he says prevents him from both sitting for a deposition and responding to written questions about his behavior during the raid.

The Justice Department, which is footing the bill to defend all the other agents named in the lawsuit, has legally parted ways with Witsell. He is now represented by private attorney Mary Ann Stackhouse, a former deputy attorney for the Knox County Law Department.

Magistrate Judge Steger says in a recent ruling that he has reviewed medical records Stackhouse provided him under seal.

“Based on the information in such records, the court finds that Witsell does have a legitimate health problem that prevents his participation in (the) discovery (and deposition process) in this lawsuit at the present time,” Steger wrote.

But Steger said in his ruling Witsell’s current “health problem is not relevant to the claims and defenses in this lawsuit,” and “there is no question that Witsell possesses information that is relevant to the claims and defenses in this case, and that (workers) will be prejudiced by Witsell’s inability to provide answers to the questions posed by (workers’) counsel in discovery.”

In a rare move, Steger is now recommending that McDonough bar Witsell from testifying in his own defense should the lawsuit make its way to a jury, bar any defense witnesses from using information provided by Witsell on behalf of his fellow agents and give jurors an “adverse-inference instruction” that Witsell’s failure to appear for a deposition and answer questions could be considered against him in their deliberations.

“Here, the court finds that Witsell has failed to appear for his deposition and has further failed to fully respond to interrogatories and requests for production served upon him,” Steger wrote. “While he has presented a legitimate reason for his failure to cooperate in discovery, the situation, nevertheless, has the potential to prejudice (workers’) prosecution of their claims.”

It is not clear from court records whether Witsell remains employed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or whether any action has been taken against him in the excessive force claims investigated by OPR.

The workers’ case is current set for trial in February. Steger and, ultimately, McDonough, must first decide whether to certify the litigation as a class-action lawsuit and to issue rulings in various pre-trial motions before that trial date is confirmed.

Slaughterhouse owner James Brantley was not arrested the day of the raid nor were the two white supervisors, since identified in court records as brothers Carl Kinser and Jason Kinser. Brantley eventually struck a deal in 2019 to plead guilty to tax charges, admitting he dodged paying $2.5 million in payroll taxes. He was sentenced to 18 months, which he served at a work camp in Alabama. He’s been free since January 2021.

The Kinser brothers also struck plea deals in 2019 with the U.S. Attorney’s office, confessing to charges of harboring illegal immigrants. They were ordered to spend three years under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifton Corker wound up freeing them from that supervision just nine months after it started.

The Latino workers arrested on the day of the raid were held for hours at the armory without any charges pending against them, without any notice of their whereabouts to their families and without legal representation, records show.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

The mother of a Hawkins County eighth-grader says in a lawsuit filed this week that her son was repeatedly subjected to racially-motivated attacks, and the school system did nothing to stop them.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Greeneville Tuesday, details a slew of racially-motivated attacks by white students, at least three of which were recorded by the students and posted on social media. Erika Qualls contends in the lawsuit she repeatedly sought help from administrators at Church Hill Middle School and Hawkins County Director of Schools Matt Hixson, but they either ignored or downplayed her complaints.

“(Qualls’ son) was regularly subjected to a pervasive, racially-hostile school environment in which he was repeatedly referred to by the ‘N-word’; subjected to a barrage of other racial epithets, such as ‘monkey’; shown hate-based depictions of a KKK member holding a torch and noose; taunted as the brunt of a ‘slave auction’; chased and ridiculed with a stuffed monkey; and shown depictions of African-American caricatures being stabbed and shot,” the lawsuit stated.

“(Qualls) alleges that Hawkins County Board of Education officials knowingly tolerated, condoned, and were deliberately indifferent to the pattern of racial harassment suffered by (her son), thereby depriving him of equal access to educational opportunity and resulting in severe emotional injury,” the lawsuit continued.

Hixson said in a statement provided Thursday to the Tennessee Lookout the school system “vehemently” denies “that our school system tolerates racial discrimination or harassment of any kind.”

“When such allegations are brought to our attention regarding student conduct, we take steps to investigate the same and to discipline those found responsible,” Hixson said in the statement. “Hawkins County Schools and the many educators who work within our school system strive to create an environment where all students, regardless of their race, feel safe and welcome. And, we will defend ourselves in court against any claims to the contrary.”

Attorneys Larry Crain and Emily Castro, who represent Qualls, are seeking an injunction against the school system to prevent further abuse and $2.5 million in damages.

The lawsuit includes screenshots as proof of the abuse, including a photograph taken from a Snapchat video posted by white students at the school with the caption “monkey chasing monkey.” The video shows white students, one of whom was holding a stuffed monkey, taunting Qualls’ son, who is biracial, as he sought to flee.

According to the lawsuit, Hixson “blamed the COVID-19 epidemic for the outbreak of racial hatred among the students, whom he said spent so much time at home during the pandemic.”

Qualls’ son, the lawsuit stated, was one of only five minority students at Church Hill, which has a total student population of roughly 400.

Racial slurs

Qualls enrolled her son at Church Hill in the fall of 2021. Within two weeks, the racially-motivated attacks began, according to the lawsuit.

In the first incident detailed in the lawsuit, the boy was sitting in class when a white student walked in, shoved the boy and yelled, “Fight me, you (expletive) monkey.” Qualls’ son ignored the white student, but he persisted.

“While eating lunch (that same day) in the school cafeteria, the same white student yelled at (Qualls’ son) from across the cafeteria, calling him a “n***** b****.”

“(Qualls) alleges that this incident occurred within hearing distance of school faculty, but no corrective action was taken by any of the school staff,” the lawsuit stated. “Near the end of the school day, (the same white student) stalked (Qualls’ son) through the gym and out the back exit of the school building. While (Qualls’ son) was on his way to football practice, (the same white student) yelled, ‘Come back here, n*****’ and, when (Qualls’ son) turned around, (the white student) slapped him in the face.”

When Qualls’ son sought “to defend himself against this physical and verbal assault,” a teacher “separated” the pair, put the white student on “his school bus” to go home and escorted Qualls’ son to the school office, the lawsuit stated.

Qualls was waiting for her son in the parking lot when she saw him being escorted inside the building. The lawsuit alleged Assistant Principal Natasha Bice refused to allow Qualls inside her office as she talked to Qualls’ son.

Bice, according to the lawsuit, accused Qualls’ son of being the instigator and, the following day, punished him with two days of in-school suspension.

“The white student that verbally and physically assaulted (Qualls’ son) and used racial epithets not once, but twice, received no punishment,” the lawsuit stated.

More racially-motivated attacks against Qualls’ son followed in the following months, according to the lawsuit.

‘Monkey Island’

“On March 1, 2022, a drawing depicting an image of a KKK member holding a torch and noose, standing over ‘Monkey Island,’ was passed around the school cafeteria,” the lawsuit stated. “A white student handed the drawing to (Qualls’ son) as several of his white peers were laughing and mocking the drawing as though they found it humorous.”

When Qualls’ son informed his mother of that incident, she “immediately sent an email to Principal Scott Jones, reporting the drawing and expressing concern about the incident and its impact on her son,” the lawsuit stated.

In a meeting with Jones and Bice the following day, “Bice apologized to (Qualls’ son), simply stating that it should never have happened,” but, according to the lawsuit neither she nor Jones took any action against the white students.

Less than a week later, Qualls’ son was again verbally attacked while inside a restroom at the school.

“Five white students entered the boys’ restroom and confronted (Qualls’ son),” the lawsuit stated. “One of the students used his cell phone to videotape this encounter, while another student chased (Qualls’ son) out of the restroom holding a stuffed monkey.”

According to the lawsuit, one of the white students involved posted the video on Snapchat with the caption, “monkey chasing monkey,” and shared it with other students in Qualls’ son’s class. Qualls reported that incident to Hixson three days later.

“Director Hixson told Ms. Qualls that school administrators were made aware of the incident and that a full investigation was underway,” the lawsuit stated. “(The school system) delayed its investigation, however, and did not interview the male student responsible for this racial taunting until several weeks later.”

The lawsuit does not detail what, if anything, the school system did after interviewing the white student. Meanwhile, the verbal attacks on Qualls’ son continued, according to the litigation.

“On March 14, 2022, while walking the hallways at Church Hill Middle School, a white male student … began promoting what he referred to as the ‘Monkey of the Month Campaign,’” the lawsuit stated. “According to this school-wide campaign, the student ‘who acted the most n*****’ would be elected ‘Monkey of the Month.’

“On March 15, 2022, while (Qualls’ son) was in the boys’ Restroom, this same student … entered the restroom and in front of other students began acting a role out loud as a slave auctioneer and pretended to be selling (Qualls’ son) to the highest bidder,” the lawsuit continued.

‘Picking my shirt’

Qualls again notified Hixson, the school system director, according to the lawsuit.

At a follow-up meeting with Hixson, Jones, Bice and School Administrator Thomas Floyd, Hixson told Qualls “the school administration was ‘not going to focus on past incidents but work hard to make sure they didn’t have any more racially-motivated incidents’,” the lawsuit stated.

It was then, according to the lawsuit, that Hixson blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for students’ “racial hatred.”

Qualls would go on to report at least three more racially-motivated incidents at the school.

One involved a white student who “published a video” to social media depicting “the back of his hand, where he had written in black ink the words ‘n*****, n*****’ and a caption stating that he wrote it while taking a (expletive).”

A screen shot from that video, which was circulated among students at the school, also is included in the lawsuit.

The second incident, again recorded and posted on social media, involved three white students holding “inflated blue vinyl gloves with caricatures drawn on them of the heads of African-Americans,” the lawsuit stated.

“The heads were mockingly assigned African-American sound names, ‘Shaundale, Quandale and Quandale Jr.,” the lawsuit stated. “The students who made these artifacts posted Instagram videos of them with someone shooting and stabbing the gloves while speaking in ‘Ebonics’ or what might be termed a blend of racial sounding phonics.”

A screen shot from that video was, likewise, included in the lawsuit as proof.

In the third incident reported by Qualls, “a white student approached (her son) at school and gave him a clothing tag from his shirt which read ‘100 percent cotton,’” the lawsuit stated. “The student then stated to (Qualls’ son), ‘Thanks for picking my shirt this morning, n*****.’”

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.