A Hamilton County teacher who resigned in 2014 following years of warnings and reprimands, was hired a year later by Metro Nashville Public Schools.
Jason Hamrick was a teacher at Ooltewah High School from 1999 until 2014. Then-principal Ed Foster filed frequent complaints against Hamrick as early as 2001. Hamrick’s record was then clean from 2008-2014.
Among the written documentation notices were suspicion of inappropriate behavior with students in and out of the classroom. One notice in his personnel file is critical of him for allowing male students at his home for a sleepover.
When Hamilton County administrators confronted Hamrick about numerous complaints in early 2014, he resigned.
School officials submitted information to the Tennessee Department of Education and Hamrick was reprimanded for “conduct unbecoming of an educator.” His teaching license in Tennessee remained active.
HAMRICK’S PATH TO NASHVILLE
After an apparent 18-month hiatus from education, Nashville school officials hired Hamrick to teach in August 2015. He remained on the job until February 2016 after someone alerted officials to his past.
When Channel 3 Eyewitness News asked Metro Nashville Public Schools about the process, senior communications officer Janel Lacy emailed the following statement: (continue reading)