Scores of people came to the meeting of the Hamilton County Board of Education on Wednesday night because they wanted reassurance.
They wanted to hear from their school superintendent and their elected leaders everything they could legally say about an incident involving a freshman Ooltewah High School basketball player reportedly raped on a basketball trip last month.
They wanted to know what we want to know: If the school board and administration are reviewing policies and procedures about hazing, abuse, harassment and the like. They wanted to know if their children are safe at school, in the locker room, on a field trip or band competition. They wanted to know what can the school board do? What can the superintendent do? What can the Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association do?
Those who came to the meeting at the school district headquarters off Bonny Oaks Drive wanted to hear from their representatives that the reported rape and assault was an isolated incident, not part of a culture they would have to worry about in other schools.
They were, in other words, just being parents.