Gov. Bill Lee made a visit Thursday to Chattanooga’s department of children’s services office, where he touched on the importance of caring for vulnerable kids, political divide and his vision for Tennessee.
In a room of a couple dozen children’s services employees, Lee said one of the reasons he has such empathy for at-risk children is because of a personal experience with his four children.
“I have this tragic moment in my life, and it turned my life upside down,” he said.
His wife was killed years ago. It was tragic to watch them walk through trauma, Lee said.
His children had resources and support but still faced hardships, according to Lee. There are children who face sexual abuse and other forms of abuse without support, which is a different kind of intense trauma.
There is no higher calling than those who make sure the most vulnerable kids in our society are protected, safe and taken care of, Lee said.
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About 20 years ago, Lee said he was working in the inner city with children, which is part of what got him wound up in education reform.
There were children who he thought had no choices and deserved to, he said.
“You’ve no doubt heard that I care about school choice,” he said.
He took several questions from people in the audience such as what his personal vision for Tennessee is.
Lee wants the state to be a place others look to as an example of doing the right thing, he said. He wants Tennessee to be a place that is thinking about the things that matter.
There is an importance to civility, and it’s a strength rather than a weakness, Lee said.
“It’s very divided in this country,” he said.
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Lee said the easiest thing to do is retreat into our positions, but people should recognize their biases in order to compensate for them.
“We have to fight for civility,” Lee said. “We have to fight for finding the dignity in each other.”
A reporter asked Lee how he feels about harsher penalties for juveniles who commit crimes, as there seems to be a focus on juvenile crime in Tennessee’s larger counties.
“We have to look at the whole picture,” Lee responded. “I think we have to look at specific penalties that apply to specific cases. I can’t speak broadly to harsher penalties.”
Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp has repeatedly said she is concerned about what is happening with Chattanooga’s male youth, pointing to multiple local teenagers involved in or killed in shootings.
A “blended sentencing” law went into effect this year. The law made it so that some “serious youthful offenders” must face an additional sentence of probation or prison that ends on or before their 24th birthday. Tennessee lawmakers have proposed legislation this year targeted toward juvenile crime.
For example, one proposed law would make it so that a child who is accused of being delinquent or unruly can be ordered to wear a global positioning monitoring systems or an ankle monitor.
Lee said he has been focused on criminal justice reform, which means being tough and smart on crime.
“We need to understand youth crime better,” Lee said. “We need to understand the root causes of youth crime.”
He made an investment of over $470 million into department of children’s services real estate, which will be used to rebuild two youth detention centers, Wilder Youth Development Center in Somerville and Woodland Hills Youth Development Center in Nashville.
The new facilities will allow for modernized programming that can address the nuances of crime in a more effective way, so juveniles are ready to reenter their community, according to Lee.
Contact Sofia Saric at ssaric@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476.