Marta W. Aldrich

MSCS boardThe Memphis-Shelby County Schools board, shown here in 2023, held its final meeting on Tuesday before school board elections on Aug. 1. The first day of classes for the 2024-25 academic year is Aug. 5.

The law assigns teachers sole liability for anything that might go wrong with their gun, including an accidental shooting, or their failure to prevent a tragedy.

In April, Superintendent Justin Robertson said he would not recommend arming staff given the district's ability to provide a school resource deputy or school security officer in every building.

Superintendent Marie Feagins, who was hired to lead Tennessee's largest district this spring, is dealing with a myriad of challenges as a new academic year begins for Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

National Teacher of the Year Missy Testerman poses with some of her students at Rogersville City School last year in their rural Appalachian community in East Tennessee. Testerman's students are either immigrants or first-generation Americans born to immigrant families.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools is trying to track down more than 2,300 kids who were expected to enroll for the 2024-25 academic year.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools, the state's largest school system, has been under a federal review since 2020 about the district's handling of sexual misconduct cases beginning in 2017, including incidents involving both student and staff misconduct.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools violated federal civil rights law by not adequately responding to complaints of sexual harassment and assault of students over a three-year period, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights announced on Friday.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.