Campus Safety Scandal:
TCAT Crime Numbers Questioned: Instructor threatened
Chase Matheson - december 16, 2024
LIVINGSTON, TN--In 1986, a young woman named Jeanne Clery was raped and murdered at a college campus by a fellow student after being unaware of the local crime issues at the school. The CLERY Act passed in 1990 and forced colleges to report and publish statistics on certain crimes and for this publication to be accessible at all times by any student or prospective student. This information is also published on the Federal Department of Education website here. Many families use these reports to make the final decision on where to have their children attend college. Livingston TCAT boasts one of the lowest crime rates in Tennessee, but is their reporting accurate?
The Patriot Punk Network recently heard that there may be an ongoing investigation into the Tennessee College of Applied Technologies Livingston Campus for possibly underreporting numbers on their CLERY reports. Though CLERY is a federal law, misrepresentations could constitute fraud, official misconduct, or several other state charges if found to be intentional. Based on official responses received from law enforcement agencies we are not sure which agency is leading the investigation.
source: tcat livingston office crime report
Source: federal department of education
note: no information is available on this site for 2023.
According to the website, TCAT Livingston reports that there was only a single infraction on campus in 2023--a disciplinary drug abuse referral. The available data also shows no unfounded crimes (crimes that were reported and found to later be without merit). Going on this information, the TCAT Livingston campus seems extremely safe.
However, the Patriot Punk Network has confirmed at least 1 incident that does not appear to have been reported accurately in the 2023 report. The incident involves an instructor who was threatened by students. Shanks (homemade knives) were also discovered hidden by the students along with a possible plot to murder the instructor.
The Patriot Punk Network spoke to Ronald Conner, Army veteran, student, and former instructor of Building Construction Technology at TCAT Livingston about his experience.
After coming back from a Veterans Day event at another campus on or around November 8, 2023, Ron Conner discovered a drawing of himself taped to his desk. At the time, he was an Adjunct Instructor. What he saw sent chills down his spine. "It was a drawing of me being shot in the head," Mr. Conner said.
Conner says that he reported the offense to the campus police officer and after a brief investigation Conner says that several homemade knives were found hidden, and that a text message screenshot was shown to him that indicated the students wanted to make a "ceremony" out of it.
Conner says he has experienced a surprising response from school administration. "After I got the screenshots of those text messages, it got back to the office staff that I had reported it. I got chewed out by the President of the school [Cliff Wightman] and I was told I shouldn't have reported this."
We have learned that this may not be the first instructor threatened at the TCAT Livingston campus. Just a couple of years ago, in either late 2021 or early 2022, another plot was allegedly discovered. Again it involved hidden knives and a plan to stab an instructor. This was referenced in the more recent incident when they referred to making it a "ceremony". That first instructor was allegedly let go after the incident.
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"As bad as this is, this isn't the worst thing going on," says Ron Conner when talking about his experience. "There's a lot more going on here."
We asked him if they ever discovered which student made the threatening drawing. "They never figured it out," he said. Ron says he was chewed out by TCAT Livingston President Cliff Wightman for reporting the incident and not handling it internally, a claim that has not been denied directly by President Wightman.
"I was told 'we don't report these things' and that a lot of these kids are here on judge's orders and we don't want to ruin their lives." Ron says he's concerned for students' and instructors' safety and feels students who have chosen to attend TCAT Livingston deserve to know the truth about crime on campus, and how underreported the numbers are.
After showing Mr. Conner the CLERY report for TCAT Livingston we asked Ron how many violations he thought may be unreported "There's a lot," he said. Ron says that both TCAT Livingston Vice President Jeffery Slagle and President Cliff Wightman were aware of the matter shortly after it happened. Wightman is also the President of the Crossville campus which boasts similarly low crime statistics.
The Patriot Punk Network has reached out to them both, along with the TBI for comment. Wightman and the TBI responded. The TBI largely ignored our questions and told us simply "as the Clery Act is a federal law, you may want to contact the US Department of Education." We politely reminded them that fraud, official misconduct, and other crimes alleged are all state crimes where they have jurisdiction. Their response is below:
Cliff Wightman also responded to our request for comment. We asked him 6 questions:
1. Were you aware that some crimes, including threats of violence against staff, were not properly reported on the CLERY reports?
2. Have you ever had a conversation with a staff member, student, or instructor about not reporting offenses to CLERY or not reporting crimes to the proper authorities? Have these conversations ever gotten heated or led to retaliatory actions or dismissals?
3. How many incidents that should have been reported, were not?
4. Do you believe you or anyone on your staff has committed any criminal or civil violation they or TCAT could be liable for?
5. Are there any bonuses or incentives provided to yourself or anyone else for having low crime stats on the CLERY report?
6. How many students attend TCAT Livingston and Crossville campuses that are on some form of a judicial release or diversion program?
5. Are there any bonuses or incentives provided to yourself or anyone else for having low crime stats on the CLERY report?
6. How many students attend TCAT Livingston and Crossville campuses that are on some form of a judicial release or diversion program?
Mr. Wightman's response did not address all of the questions we asked, as you can see below. So we further pressed him regarding Mr. Conner's specific incident. That correspondence is contained at the bottom of this article.
Clearly, Mr. Wightman is aware of the threats that occurred in late 2023 and did not attempt to deny the hostile interaction alleged by Mr. Conner. Do you feel that having a discussion with the instructor over "classroom management" was the appropriate response?
There is more to come from this story, including an exclusive interview with threatened instructor Ron Conner that will be published soon. We are in the process of submitting open records requests for the police reports and other pertinent records. Subscribe to our newsletter to be made aware of any updates.