{"id":1274426,"date":"2023-11-09T15:48:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T21:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1274426"},"modified":"2023-11-11T00:06:03","modified_gmt":"2023-11-11T06:06:03","slug":"athens-school-board-terminates-educator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1274426","title":{"rendered":"Athens school board terminates educator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-357157\" src=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2015\/05\/Athens-High-School-hornet-logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"156\" height=\"136\" \/>ATHENS \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Dozens of community members were inside the Athens ISD Administration Building for nearly five hours regarding the school board\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision whether to terminate educator Jennifer Risinger at a special meeting on Wednesday. The district found Risinger broke several school policies in answering a plea from a student that she claimed needed help. Before the board went into executive session, people shared their feelings. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can honestly say I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m embarrassed to be a Hornet,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said one student.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Almost 20 people spoke, pleading with board members to let Risinger keep her job.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is important because these are the kind of teachers we want,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Renda Garner, former school board trustee.<\/p>\n<p>The closed-door executive session lasted so long that some attendees ordered pizza while they waited. After executive session ended, the school board voted to terminate Risinger.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think there were a lot of factors when taken with a big picture,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said School Board President Alicea Elliott.<\/p>\n<p>Elliott said they have evidence that Risinger assisted the student getting by a drug test.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The administrator warned the student about an upcoming drug test and took the student to Tyler to get a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccleanse,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Elliott.<\/p>\n<p>Elliot added the behavior was concerning and something the school doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want from an administrator.<\/p>\n<p>Some parents believe it was not the right choice.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was appalled,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said parent Cherie Lee. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was taken aback by the decision. It sent shockwaves.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>She said that Risinger helped the student \u00e2\u20ac\u0153out of kindness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ATHENS \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Dozens of community members were inside the Athens ISD Administration Building for nearly five hours regarding the school board\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision whether to terminate educator Jennifer Risinger at a special meeting on Wednesday. The district found Risinger broke several school policies in answering a plea from a student that she claimed needed help. Before &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1274426\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Athens school board terminates educator<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":1274432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2015\/05\/Athens-High-School-hornet-logo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Athens school board terminates educator","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1274426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 08:50:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2015\/05\/Athens-High-School-hornet-logo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Athens school board terminates educator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1274426"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1274555,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274426\/revisions\/1274555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1274432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1274426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1274426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1274426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}