Tag: Adrienne Battle

Metro Nashville Schools Hire Gay Ex-Professional Wrestler Who Performed as ‘Flamboyant Faron Foxx,’ Appeared on Jerry Springer

Tom Pappert
Ed Martin

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) earlier this month announced new principals and executives for the 2025-26 school year, which included the promotion of Dr. David Martin to serve as the executive director of the MNPS Support Hub. 

While the MNPS press release published on June 3 described Martin as “an experienced educational leader with more than 15 years in district and state-level administration,” it did not note that Martin resigned in 2021 from his new role as superintendent of the Alamont School System in Illinois after just six days, when concerns were raised about his past career as an openly gay professional wrestler, as well as his appearance on “The Jerry Springer Show,” which was reported in 2001. 

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Nashville School Superintendent Refers Students to ‘Belonging Fund’ Created to Support Illegal Immigrants

Tom Pappert
Dr Battle

The new “Belonging Fund” announced by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell to support illegal immigrants was reportedly presented to Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) students as a resource by Superintendent Dr. Adrienne Battle.

Battle directed students to the fund on Monday in response to a letter purportedly written by students concerned about the joint immigration enforcement operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP), according to WPLN, which reported about 80 students voiced their concerns in a letter addressed to O’Connell and Battle.

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Metro Nashville Public Schools Partner with Vanderbilt University to Address ‘Educational Inequities’

Cooper Moran

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) and Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College are partnering to address ‘educational inequities’ in the Nashville area.

According to the two groups, the project will have the goal of “producing actionable, innovative and scalable research to address racial and social inequities in pre-K-12 schools.”

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Tennessee Lt. Gov. McNally Warns Davidson and Shelby Counties on Mask Opt-Outs: General Assembly ‘Will Not Allow Lawful Orders to be Defied’

Chris Butler

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s executive order granting public school students the right to opt out of COVID-19 mask mandates has prompted Nashville and Memphis school administrators to announce they will not comply with Lee’s latest directive. That, in turn, prompted a response on Tuesday from Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge). On Facebook, McNally said Metro Nashville Public Schools’ (MNPS) and Shelby County Schools’ (SCS) officials’ apparent defiance against Lee left him “appalled and alarmed.”

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Metro Nashville Public Schools Drops Mask Requirement for Fall Semester

Corinne Murdock

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) announced Tuesday that they won’t require students or faculty to wear masks for the upcoming school year.

MNPS said that these updated COVID protocols were “commonsense.” In the announcement, MNPS Director of Schools Adrienne Battle asserted that masks for the unvaccinated were strongly encouraged – especially for those with underlying health conditions or students under 12 years old. Otherwise, Battle said that MNPS will monitor case data in the event they need to adjust masking requirements.

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John Cooper’s Staff Defends Spending COVID-19 Relief Money on Laptops for Public School Students

Chris Butler

A spokesman for Nashville Mayor John Cooper said Tuesday that the federal CARES Act gives city officials plenty of room to spend COVID-19 relief money on laptops for public school students in Davidson County.

“The U.S. Treasury Department’s guidance on the CARES Act funds specifically provides for ‘expenses to facilitate distance learning, including technological improvements, in connection with school closings to enable compliance with COVID-19 precautions,’” said Cooper spokesman Chris Song, in an email to The Tennessee Star Tuesday.

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