Howard High band director suspended, escorted off campus

Howard supporters question Dexter Bell's suspension

Dexter Bell
Dexter Bell

For the first time in at least a half century, Howard School missed marching in the annual Armed Forces Day Parade last Friday, a day after band director Dexter Bell was escorted off the campus and suspended without pay.

"It hurt my heart because I know the kids," said Chattanooga Police Sgt. Cheryl Bryant, who is a volunteer band assistant.

"They practiced so hard and the seniors in the band can't get that moment back."

Howard's marching band, with its flashy moves, highlighted the parade for decades until the tradition was interrupted this year.

Principal Zac Brown canceled Howard's performance one day before the parade, after a school resource officer escorted band instructor Dexter Bell off the school property. Brown said Thursday he could only say that Bell was on leave and did not know when he would return.

Dr. Ava Warren, director of human resources for Hamilton County secondary schools, said Bell was suspended as of May 1.

photo Howard School principal Zac Brown dismisses buses in this 2014 file photo.

"Mr. Bell has been suspended without pay pending further investigation into allegations that he was insubordinate," Warren said.

Bryant said students called her to say Bell was being escorted out of the building.

"The kids called me and told me that an announcement had come across the intercom in the school. Mr. Brown sounded mad and upset when he made the announcement that there would not be band practice and you will not be performing in the parade and they didn't know why," Bryant said.

Contacted for comment, Bell said through Bryant that a gag order prohibits him from speaking to anyone about the situation.

Students protested Bell's absence by standing in front of the school praying and holding signs on Tuesday.

Several volunteers and band parents offered support for Bell, saying he tries to help their children. In the five or six years he's been at the school, Bell has helped five students obtain band scholarships to college.

Torina Walker is the mother of three band students at Howard. She said Bell got the scholarship information and helped her family complete paperwork for her oldest daughter to attend East Tennessee State University.

"My oldest daughter would not have made it without Bell," Walker said. "She was shy and not outgoing, and now she has blossomed."

High school senior Jessica Cummings said if it wasn't for Bell she would probably be an unwed mother or in jail, but because of him she is being considered for a band scholarship to Alabama A&M University.

"He changed my life," she said. "He paid my application fee to get in the school because I couldn't pay it."

Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 757-6431.

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