Local News

Sumner County Schools have finished installing vape detectors in all 11 of their middle schools. Director of Schools Scott Langford says the technology will work as a “powerful deterrent” to what’s become a habit nationwide for youth. The detectors will be located in every school bathroom. Officials said they would work like smoke detectors, except when smoke is picked up, they wouldn’t make a noise. Instead, specific school personnel—like School Resource Officers—will be notified.

Preliminary results of a Tennessee Association of School Librarians survey showed more than 1,100 books have been taken off school library shelves since a series of state laws took effect that rewrote the rules on what students are allowed to read. Xan Lasko, a retired school librarian and the chair of the Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee thinks the law is too vague, forcing individual school boards, and sometimes librarians, to interpret the language themselves. The group wants legislators to more clearly define what is prohibited in the law and more closely align the legislation’s language with federal best practice, which says librarians should consider the book as a whole when determining what’s appropriate.

To curb suicide rates and raise more awareness about the many ways to care for struggling individuals, a new proclamation was made last week by Robertson County Mayor Billy Vogle naming September as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. At this month’s Robertson County Commission meeting on Sept. 16, Stephanie Evans, a licensed professional counselor and mental health service provider with Might Oak Christian Mental Health Services, spoke to the commission on behalf of the Robertson County Health Council to highlight the organization’s efforts to promote suicide prevention awareness.