Deborah ThompsonDespite a two-hour delay Friday that led to classes being canceled, Bledsoe County Middle School’s staff came to work because that’s what the school’s late principal would have expected.
Principal and longtime Bledsoe County educator Deborah Thompson was killed Thursday afternoon when a car plowed into a restaurant in Knoxville. Police said the car struck her before it came to rest in the Wild Birds Unlimited store next door.
“The staff had really wanted to come today because they knew that Miss Debbie would tell them to be here for the students,” Bledsoe County Director of Schools Jennifer Terry said Friday.
“She would have told us all to ‘suck it up and get in there and take care of those kids,'” Terry said, teary-eyed.
“Debbie was definitely the rock of the school.”