CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Clarksville-Montgomery County School System (CMCSS) officials are investigating a series of questionable tweets allegedly posted by a high school teacher.
According to CMCSS spokeswoman Elise Shelton, the alleged posts by West Creek High teacher Zackorie Suggs are being investigated by the school district’s Human Resources Department.
“This concern was brought to our attention on Friday, July 21. Our Human Resources Department began looking into it immediately and opened an investigation. At this time, teachers are on summer break; and, therefore, completion of the investigation may take longer than usual,” Shelton said.
The following screenshots of the alleged tweets were sent to ClarksvilleNow.com:
Suggs issued the following statement via email to ClarksvilleNow.com regarding the tweets and the investigation:
“I deeply regret the unfortunate situation that I have created in terms of my personal Twitter account. I have worked extremely hard to create a positive impact in the community and unfortunately many of my comments have been taken out of context, were banter, or simply trying to incite a debate by taking a hard line position. I apologize to those that I have offended it was certainly not my intent to incite this type of negative reaction from anyone. As a teacher of a Contemporary Issues class I encourage my students to offer both opinion and debate on a daily basis concerning a variety of controversial topics. I have not always addressed things in a politically correct manner and going forward I will remedy that in order to maintain a higher level of professional conduct during my time outside of the classroom. I look forward to the upcoming school year and to get back to my passion which is teaching.”
Suggs, who teaches economics and contemporary issues at West Creek is getting public support on a Facebook group page titled I Stand with Suggs. Facebook users who claim to be former students have defended Suggs and posted anecdotes about their time in his classroom.
The Twitter account reportedly connected to the screenshots has since been deleted.