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School officials will allow pipe-bomb suspects to complete senior projects

By Lynn Hotaling

Local school officials, after lengthy closed session debate, agreed to allow four suspended high school students to complete required senior projects.

School board members last Thursday (March 16) approved alternative education plans for five suspended Smoky Mountain High seniors - Matt Breedlove, Josh Haddock, Jennifer Parker, P.T. Parker and Travis Shepherd - as required by state statutes.

As part of that action Haddock, Jennifer Parker, P.T. Parker and Shepherd will be allowed to complete senior projects, which are an SMHS requirement of 12th-grade English. Breedlove fulfilled that obligation last fall.

Senior project coordinator Alice Pendergast, who along with Principal Ken Henke met with board members for more than an hour last week, will supervise the efforts of the four students.

The suspended students will make their oral presentations, a key component of SMHS senior projects, at an off-campus location, said School Board Chairman Martha Queen.

Senior projects were waived for all four as a part of their early college admission; however, in a March 8 letter, the students asked that they be allowed to do them.

"We, as students of Smoky Mountain High School, do not wish to feel that we have put any less work into completing our senior year than any of the rest of our classmates. We want to know that our SMHS diplomas represent the same amount of effort expected from anyone else in the senior class," states the letter signed by Haddock, Shepherd, P.T. Parker and Jennifer Parker. Their offer was prompted by rumors of a planned protest by SMHS seniors angry that the four would be allowed to graduate without completing the senior project requirement, P.T. Parker said.

After meeting for more than two hours in closed session March 16, local school officials released the following statement:

"The Jackson County Board of Education considered the recommendation of Superintendent Frank Burrell and then took action (March 16) to approve alternative education programs for five students with charges pending against them in connection with the pipe bombings at the site of the new Scotts Creek Elementary School.

"The programs include necessary course completions at institutions of higher learning that will allow these students to receive a diploma from SMHS.

"In addition, this board has accepted the request of four of the students to complete their senior projects on a voluntary basis to the standards established by SMHS, even though students who complete senior English at institutions of higher learning are not required to complete senior projects."

SMHS began requiring comprehensive senior projects last year. The three-part assignment, designed around a topic of particular interest to the student, includes a research paper, time spent with a community mentor and an oral presentation before an evaluation committee.

"We're very hopeful the students will be able to complete senior projects according to the standards that other students meet," senior project coordinator Pendergast said Tuesday.

Breedlove, Haddock, Shepherd, Jennifer Parker and P.T. Parker, suspended for their alleged involvement in December pipe-bomb detonations that destroyed a portable toilet at the new Scotts Creek School construction site, are completing their high school course requirements at Southwestern Community College. They will receive SMHS diplomas but will not be allowed to attend commencement exercises.

All five were indicted March 6 on felony charges including possession of weapons on school property. State statutes require that a superintendent "suspend for 365 days" any students who bring weapons onto school property; however, the statute gives local boards some flexibility to provide for the alternate education of such students.

Back to Archive: 03/23/00.