Newly-elected school board member files ethics complaint against a Wilson County teacher of the year

WILSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — In an unusual public hearing, a Wilson County teacher of the year will go before an ethics committee after a complaint was filed against her by a newly-elected school board member.

According to the complaint, the teacher posted online about an interaction between that school board member and another teacher during a parent-teacher conference. Per the complaint, she claimed online that the school board member was yelling at the teacher.

The complaint filed by Greg Hohman said the teacher “concocted” the whole story and Hohman is now asking the teacher to be held accountable and is asking for a public apology from the school.

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“I don’t know of any other incident in the state of Tennessee where anyone has done this,” JC Bowman, Executive Director for Professional Educators of Tennessee, said.

Wilson County Schools has no comment. However, a spokesperson for the district said it is unusual for a teacher to be involved in ethics committee proceedings. In the past five years, there have only been a few hearings and they have only involved complaints against a school board member.

The last time the ethics committee met was in 2023 against current school board member Joseph Padilla where complaints were later dismissed .

“I don’t know of any other case in the state of Tennessee where they basically put a teacher on trial for a code of ethics violation,” Bowman said.

In a filed complaint, newly elected school board member for Zone 1, Hohman, wrote that during a parent-teacher conference with his son’s teacher, another teacher claims to have overheard him yelling. Fast forward to his campaign for school board, he claims the teacher who overheard the alleged interaction then posted about it online. He called it a “fabricated story.”

Hohman posted his complaint on his public Facebook page and stated he also has audio from the meeting that day.

Bowman said for this to be untruthful would be unusual considering the teacher won Teacher of the Year during the 2022-2023 school year. “She’s got a stellar reputation and background, and she’s been in Tennessee for a long time.”

He warned if the ethics committee goes forward with proceedings this is going to impact teachers across the state as teacher shortages continue to be a real concern .

“If they convict her for this and hold this as a real ethics complaint, I think you’ll see a serious problem and see teachers leave…you’re going to create something where teachers will not want to teach in that school system because they are afraid to say something that later they could get held accountable for,” Bowman said.

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News 2 did reach out to the Green Hill High School teacher. Her attorney said she has no comment at this time.

News 2 also called Hohman several times over the past few days, and he has not returned our phone calls.

The Wilson County Board of Education’s Ethics Committee will meet on Monday, Aug. 26 at 5:30 p.m.

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