As a retired high school teacher, I can assure you that both teachers and administrators (bus drivers, as well) will ignore bullying as long as they can possibly get away with doing so. As current news stories tell us, that may even be up to the point where a student being bullied takes his own life when he can't handle it anymore. I don't find anything this mother or her son did to be worthy of police involvement. Why wasn't the boy who bullied her son hauled into court as well? The writer who suggested eliminating sports activities was on the right track. If a school were to suspend a student guilty of bullying from attending any extracurricular activities, that would be starting out on the right track. It also sounds like this student had been bullied continually and it is disingenuous for the Director of Marion County Schools to try to gloss over that fact. These bullies MUST be stopped! If our educators were not total cowards this situation could be gotten under much better control. There needs to be a zero tolerance level anywhere on school property (including on the bus) and a second offense should bring suspension for at least two weeks and a third offense should be grounds for permanent expulsion for that school year. Yes, addressing this situation should begin with a strong warning to the parents of the offender setting out exactly what will happen if the behavior is ongoing. Until educators develop the character to handle these situations in a fair and consistent manner, some parents will continue to take matters into their own hands--and who among us can blame them?

I will take another Texas governor any day over an inexperienced "community organizer" who has no concept of American values and exceptionalism. He pretends quite unconvincingly to be a Christian and his Justice Department under Eric Holder is completely out of contol (ever heard of Boeing?). He has cronies like the terrorist Bill Eyers and the obscene preacher Jeremiah Wright. Rick Perry DID serve his country in the air force and he worked as a cotton farmer before entering politics. Obama sounds like a sarcastic professor when he speaks and obviously he belongs somewhere in a lofty tower!

Amazon provides more products at better prices than all of the mall's stores combined. If Tennessee refuses to keep its promises to Amazon, then they could relocate and any other businesses looking at placing stores in Tennessee will go elsewhere. Times are hard for many folks and we need both jobs and quality products. Also, as a disabled Tennessean, shopping with Amazon is very handy.

This goes way beyond the scope of "racism"! If the money IS setting in a bank account somewhere, then wouldn't Ms. Gilchrist be anxious to say so? Chances are it has been stolen and surely these people will be held accountable!

This newspaper is becoming as ridiculous as a "Gossip Girl" episode! Let's see. . . rumor has it that this person will do this and so on and so forth. I don't won't either of these candidates as mayor. Anyone that Littlefield supports is bound to be a crook!