COVER-UP CONFIRMED
Teacher & Police Officer Punished After Reporting Weapons on Campus
Chase Matheson - february 2, 2025
OVERTON COUNTY/STATEWIDE - Previously the Patriot Punk Network spoke with an instructor who reported that 3 knives were found at TCAT Livingston, that he was chastised for reporting it, and that the Clery Report for TCAT Livingston may not be accurate.
After an extensive investigation, we regret to inform you that it all appears to be true. What's worse, it seems the cover up could extend beyond that single campus. Agencies complicit in the cover up may include local law enforcement, the District Attorney's Office, and even the Tennessee Board of Regents' Assistant Vice Chancellor of Safety and Security for all TCAT campuses.
RECAP:
The Clery Act was introduced after a young student was raped and murdered on a college campus. It requires certain crime statistics and disciplinary referrals to be recorded and published for students and prospective students to read in order to make informed decisions about college attendance. These statistics are also submitted to the Federal Department of Education.
TCAT stands for Tennessee College of Applied Technology. These are vocational schools where students have the ability to learn trades such as building construction, cosmetology, plumbing and more. There are over 2 dozen campuses and even more locations scattered throughout the state. Over 44,000 students attend TCAT and over 25,000 of those are reported to be dual-enrollment high school students, many under the age of 18.
In December of 2024, a whistleblower came forward. Ron Conner worked as an Adjunct Instructor at TCAT Livingston, taking over the Building Construction class for another teacher who had fallen ill. He had no formal instructor training, but due to his military experience he was selected as the best choice.
police report from vol state
Summarizing his story, Ron arrived to his classroom one day after an event to find a drawing of himself being shot taped to his desk. He did not report this, but someone else did. Shortly thereafter, 3 homemade knives were discovered hidden by students along with some form of plot to possibly harm Ron (likely a bad joke in reference to a previous incident).
This incident was immediately reported. Vol State Campus Police got involved. Ultimately, the only thing that ever came of the report was that Ron was chewed out by Cliff Wightman. the President of TCAT. Cliff told Ron his poor classroom management skills were to blame and the police officer involved in taking the report was transferred. Additionally, the incident was never logged on the Clery Report.
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Police report from vol state for weapons possession in nov 2023
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THE UPDATES:
In 2023 Governor Bill Lee signed into law a $240 Million Campus Safety bill. The bill required every campus, including community colleges, to have at least one SRO on campus at all times. Prior to this, TCAT-Livingston was mainly checked in on by an officer from Livingston Police Department. Sometime around August of 2023, Vol State Police began to contract an officer from their campus police to the Livingston TCAT Campus. Between August and December, several incidents were reported by the Vol State Police. Public Intoxication, Off-Campus Domestic Abuse, Trespassing where the individual was pending trial for a statutory rape charge, and of course, Weapons Possession.
Not only did Cliff Wightman, President of TCAT Livingston blame the instructor, but he also sent text messages to Vol State Police, telling them the issue "needs to be closed." He also said that Vol State's investigation was "ridiculous" and that Vol State was "making a mountain out of nothing."
Police reports indicate that the boys admitted to making 2 of the knives, but that a 3rd one had actually been stashed in the bathroom for several semesters--left behind by 2 other students previously enrolled at TCAT.
text message included in police report
The police officer was transferred upon the request of TCAT President Cliff Wightman, and after December of 2023 Roane State Community College took over the security for TCAT Livingston. When asked for a statement, the Tennessee Board of Regents said they were aware of the situation, that no CLERY reportable offense had occurred, and that the situation was "handled appropriately."
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In September of 2024, the TCAT Livingston Clery Report was published for the 2023 year. No reference to the weapons possession was marked. According to the Clery Center, reportable weapons possession offenses include the manufacturing of weapons, concealment of weapons and the possession of weapons--all of which were admitted to by the students and documented in the police reports.
You may say, well maybe they didn't know all of the details. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
The entire police report, pictures, and supplementals were sent to the Tennessee Board of Regents' Assistant Vice Chancellor of Safety and Security of TCAT, Mike Williams. Included in these reports were statements about the President Cliff Wightman not wanting things reported, descriptions of the events, pictures of the knives, references to the incident with the two previous students, and more.
Plenty of information to warrant an investigation into reporting procedures at TCAT Livingston. Williams received all of these documents in 2023.
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clery report from tcat livingston
Another defense may be that no arrests were made in this incident. Most Clery Offenses only document arrests, but weapons possession is one of the crimes for which "disciplinary referrals" are also recorded under the Clery Act.
Disciplinary referrals are defined as: "referral of any person to an institution official who institutes a disciplinary action of which a record is kept and which may result in the imposition of a sanction... Disciplinary actions may be initiated in both informal and formal manners and can include an interview or a simple, initial review of names submitted to an institutional official."
According to Taft College.
clery act crime definitions: taft college
The police reports confirm that a weapons law violation occurred. When campus administration spoke with the boys about their behavior and documented it in communications with police and the Board of Regents, it should have at least qualified as a disciplinary referral. Perhaps the reason they didn't want to document it any further was to keep it off the Clery Report and make their campus seem safe. The "drug abuse referral" for a girl who smelled like weed made it to the list, why not weapons possession?
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The District Attorney's Office for the 13th Judicial District declined to prosecute the boys. Though broad discretion is provided to District Attorney's when making decisions involving the prosecution of crimes, the reason given in this case seems to be without proper justification--a benefit not granted to most students, including over 100 in Tennessee last year.
According to TCA code for weapons possession on school grounds, the elements of the crime were all met--admitted to by the students in their interviews with police. Though we are glad the boys did not become another statistic in the criminal justice system, the incident should have been documented, the teacher should not have been blamed, and the officer should not have been transferred.
Clery crime reports for TCAT Livingston indicate the campus is virtually crime free, but once we discovered those statistics did not reflect reality, we decided to pull other Clery Reports. Remarkably an overwhelming number of TCAT campuses report zero crime on or near campus. Though that may come as a relief to some, a full audit should be conducted of all campuses, especially when you factor in the recent increase in violence in schools.
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clery report from tcat livingston
letter from DISTRICT ATTORNEY
If the Tennessee Board of Regents, their Head of Campus Safety, the School's Safety Officer and President all believe this situation was "handled appropriately," it may be time to re-evaluate who we place in positions of leadership.
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OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
Prior to 2023, Livingston PD was in charge of policing TCAT Livingston. Our request to them for police reports returned over 20 records of petty events at TCAT, but no documents relating to the weapons possession case were included. This is not the only report that was left out.
We were also informed that one of the Vol State officers involved in a report at TCAT Livingston had been asked to change the address to not reflect that it happened ON campus. These facts, when considered together, leave us open to the possibility that Livingston PD, or some of their staff, may be complicit in the cover-up.
Mike Williams was Chief of Fairfield Glade police for over a decade. In 2018, it was reported that DA Dunaway refused to prosecute Williams after Williams fired a gun at his brother during an altercation. Mike Williams was appointed to his current position in 2022 by Governor Bill Lee.
Cliff Wightman, President of TCAT Livingston, also oversees the Crossville TCAT campus whose Clery statistics also show virtually no crime. The safety officer for that campus is also Jeff Slagle, the same as Livingston. These two are directly responsible for the weapons possession not being reported. These two individuals, tasked with keeping teachers and students safe, decided to chastise a teacher and transfer a police officer instead of just following protocol.
Vol State Community College Campus Police appear to have done the right thing by documenting all of their actions and reporting it to the higher authorities. Unfortunately, their willingness to cooperate stopped when we requested the police reports. We had been waiting for over a month, only to be told it will be another 6 weeks, that it will cost $178.02, and that we must drive to their main office to pick up the records.
In the interests of public safety and transparency, we are releasing this story and enough evidence to expose the truth. We will update you again once we finally receive the full documents we have requested.