Sullivan County Deputies Investigate Vandalism At An Area High School
Sullivan Central High School administrators arrived to school Wednesday to find lockers, locks and walls vandalized.
Sullivan County investigators said sometime during the night of Thursday, May 15th and the early morning hours of Friday, May 16th, the suspects entered Sullivan Central High School where they damaged several lockers and spray-painted the walls.
Investigators added that concrete was used to vandalize several locks and lockers throughout the school.
Deputies believe the suspects got into the school by pulling open an unlocked classroom window on the front side of the school.
Four Sullivan Central students were implicated by statements and / or video evidence and were released to the custody of a parent.
Charges are pending against three adult students and one juvenile male student, all who are seniors at the high school.
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Hey UTgirl, quit repeating yourself. you’ve already put your two cents in about 4 thousand comments ago! GEEZZ!!!! Not to mention a hypocrite.. “of course she has her flaws. who doesnt?“ WHAT?! After you’ve sat on here and talked awful about mr. ward and his “no rule policy” and all the “flaws” of central then your gonna turn around and say oh well, its okay everyone has their flaws..? Maybe you should stop before you walk into any more of your own crap. And personally, im not planning on wasting my time sending u an email either. mainly because i kno if i gave you my personal email address, you would never shut up as you do on here and secondly, your annoying. (ya kno kinda like cold weather?) And how do i kno your not some predatior? I mean you did graduate from central right? there’s no way anyone could step outa that hell hole with their heads on right! haha. But Thanks to everyone else on here for the support. Im sure the boys would appriciate knowing SOME people understand people make mistakes. And we all know theres obviously ONE person on here that understands people have their “flaws”. haha. I Figure most would be happy to know that The boys lives are far from over, they are all still going to college:-) And no, god bless YOU… Hopefully with a new hobby.
As a proud alumni of SCHS I would like to add my comments for what they are worth. First of all, the young men that pulled the Senior prank went to far, however so did the administration of the school. Vandalism is vandalism and it is against the law but to not allow the young men that qualified to graduate not walk across the stage with their classmates was uncalled for and to also take it so far that they lost their scholarships. Yes they made poor choices, have you?
I have witnessed many of these students at ballgames and watched as Mrs. Riden has screened every word they cheer. What has happened to SCHOOL PRIDE? Yes kids will be kids but just as parents we give them guidelines and with respect they do as they are asked. As I have read other alumni talk about Central as a Hell Hole, where is your school pride? All of the county schools do the best that they can, they share money alotted to them, no we are not like the city school who has a new 1.2M dollar football field or new fieldhouse, but we should be proud of who we are, Cougars! I think some of you may need to rethink where you came from!!!!!!!
I graduated from Central 2 years ago, and I agree that the school was scum then. Drugs everywhere (especially in bathrooms) and fights weekly. Not to mention the many bomb threats in below freezing-raining-snowing weather!!!! ANNOYING! It was awful. I would say Sullivan Central has more drugs than other area schools. I was an office worker and I know and saw people getting busted daily. I think Mr. Ward was a great principal, and everyone would agree. He let the students do extra-curricular activities and I think that is important. I know that Mrs. Riden is a lot more strict on current students, but please do not let these angry students blow her up to be some horrible person. Yes she has her flaws, but who doesn’t? I know and still talk to several teachers and faculty members who have said themselves that she is turning the place around into something more positive. At least there weren’t any bomb threats this school year.
As for the “prank”, I am sorry but the boys who vandalized the school deserve to be punished just like any one else who commited vandalism crimes. They should not get away with vandalism just because they are seniors. I guess if someone blew up the entire school as their “senior prank” as long as no one was in it, and no one was hurt, then they should get away with it, right? Wrong. I feel for the boys, but they really should have thought about the possible consequences that would follow their acts. If Mrs. Riden is so bad, mean, and harsh, they should have known not to mess with her school. I am sure they will get to graduate along with the rest of their class. If not, she will be hearing it for a long time from angry families of the boys.
As a student of Central graduating class od 08’ im proud to say that it was my class that pushed mrs riden over the edge! everyone can say we are a bad school they can act like all the problems originate at central but lets be real. there was a fight after the central science hill basketball game that science hill students started not only did they start it but i myself being a girl was drug into the fight and thrown down onto the ground but a science hill student…looks like mrs riden left a good mark on science hill hu? mrs riden loves the attention she is getting because she is power hungry shes making central look so bad to make herself look like she has turned us around well our graduation rates have droped by all the “problem students” she has kicked out.telling the students they they will count against her this year but she wont let the ruin it for her next year. She isnt a very good role model pushing students to the farthes breaking points taking away every senior tradition we had left. Not to mention a teacher got fired not to long ago for going to hooters with their students…well guess who was at hooters last weekend celebrating a students birthday…Melony Riden.going on to tell students “i know drinking is fun but you should wait until your 21 because its against the law” in a school meeting. Mr. Ward once said “When it is your child your beg for mercy, when it is someone elses you want to see them cry” the prank did not hurt anyone nor was it any worse than any one before so crucify us for being stupid kids as if you werent sometime ago.
As a former student of Central in 2004 I would be one of the mojority that would agree that it was a hellhole. I hated that school but not because of the teachers or principals but because of the people who went to school there. The sinior prank happens every year and I am totally an outsider looking in but as much as I have heard Mrs. Riden is taking this way way to far I think the boys should pay for that they have done but not letting them graduate after they earned it she has no right to take that away form them. I still have a little sister who goes to central and I think Mr. Ward was awsome and I dont agree with the way Riden does anything in that school.
I continue to stand by the so called “vandalizers” to this hour, minute, and second. EVERY SINGLE SCHOOL IN THE UNITED STATES HAS FLAWS! Drugs are at every school and so are thugs. Coming from a school that was the opposite of Sullivan Central in being in the racial minority, every school is bad. You know I am two credits shy of graduating? If David H. Ward was here I would probably be graduating because the teachers helped more without Melanie Riden breathing down their backs. Melanie Riden THIS YEAR has done more bad for the school than good. I agree with CHS08. Do you really call new bathroom stalls and repainted rooms turning the school around? If so, you need a reality check. There are still just as many druggies and thugs than there were three years ago. Me graduating and my little brother being an upcoming freshman I’m worried to death that Melanie Riden will mess his high school career up as well. Jail time is NOT the answer. This will be on their record for the rest of their lives just because of one silly mistake. Mrs. Riden should have known that no matter how much security she has guarding the school at night, the senior prank is inevitable. It happens every single year and frankly it’s incredibly stupid to even waste the money on security to make sure it happens. I guarentee you that next years senior prank will be five million times worse than this years. Just because Riden added more fuel to the fire. Now if you need to e-mail me my email address is Scooter2282@gmail.com. I would be GLAD to discuss with you the flaws of Central too and with that the flaws of every other school in the Sullivan county district. Thank you.
as a parent of a schs senior i have to agree with CHS08. their punishment is way too harsh, and those boys deserve to walk across that stage with the rest of their class. i’m also a schs alumni. i loved my school just as much then as i do now. the principal has no control over the so called “thugs” and “drug users”. those issues are the result of poor parenting. david ward was an excellent principal, and he knew how to run a school. he also understood that the senior year in many ways marks the end of childhood. ms. riden seems to have forgotten that they are only kids.
yes they do deserve to be held accountable for their actions, but they have taken it too far. it’s sad to see that a senior in highschool can understand this more than adults.
As I said before sweetie, I am only on here to take up for the principal that is turning things around at Central. (I get an e-mail every time one of you children respond to my “adult” comments, I may be a loser for checking my e-mail frequently but I bet you check your myspace just as much). I would love to know how I was “BASHING” your senior friends on here. I believe I was only stating facts and calling them vandalizers. They did cause $12,000 (not 21,000—maybe it was a typo, but maybe I am dyslexic and you just discovered it for me, thank you!) dollars in damage to our precious Sullivan Central didn’t they? Yes I believe the correct term for these boys would be “vandalizers”. Oh and one more news flash, I graduated from Central in 2006, and yes that was only two short years ago. I am also only 19 years old which shouldn’t be too far away from your age. If we interviewed everyone from the classes of oh say 2002-2007 I believe the majority would vote that Sullivan Central was just as I said, a “hellhole”. I guess people getting busted for pills and pot daily at Central doesn’t make it TOO BAD at Central. I just assume people who use drugs and start fights as thugs, I guess I should look up a better word in the gangster dictionary. If you would like to e-mail me, (tenngirl3@yahoo.com), I would be glad to go over with you all of the flaws that Central had while I was there and back up all of my “adult comments”. Oh, and I was a good girl in high school, thank you. Thanks again and God Bless YOU.
Me being a PROUD, mature graduate of the Sullivan Central class of 08’ would know that there were NOT “twenty one THOUSAND dollars worth of damage.“ haha. I know all the kids in my class and have got the oppurtunity to ask one of the four guys personally how much he has to pay. You know what his response was? THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS. So lets take time to think about this here for a second, some of you so called “adults” that talk like your SOO highly educated (yet waste all your time on the internet bashing teenagers for acting their age) should know that there were four boys so what’s 4 times three class? That would be twelve. Now, change that to twelve thousand and there’s your grand total of damages. NOT 21,000! Suffering from Dyslexia? Possibly. And another thing, dont get me wrong, Mrs. Riden is a good person. I mean im sure if you ran into her at walmart she wouldnt flip you off or anything.. unless you did the cougar cheer that we werent “allowed” to do this year that we have done since the beginning of time. Yeah, Mrs riden is totally turning our school around, or what was it you refered to it as “hell hole”? If you think getting new bathroom stalls, painting, and causing the graduation rate for our school to plummit lower than EVER then yeah TOTALLY an improvement! I am not saying the boys shouldnt have been punished by ANY means, but their punishment was MUCH too severe. And yeah, im one of those scum of the earth teenagers too but i know whats fair and whats not because BOTH of my parents work in the field of law and both agree that their punishments were rediculous. Yes, Mr.Ward was a whole heck of alot more lenient but he was PASSIONATE in seeing kids graduate after working so hard for so long, and not allowing ONE night of poor judgement to keep you from walking across that stage. Instead of being a close minded, inconsiderate butthole like the rest of the world’s large (not all!) group of adults that like to sit around living life in denial, and pretend they never got into any mischeif in their teenage years. You all act like its the end of the world because a bunch of teenage boys vandalized a school. I think your the ones that need to do the growing up, get over it. They are punished, just like you want them to be. so move on! There are children starving, and gas is almost 4 dollars a gallon and all your conserned about is bashing teenagers and central high school? And last of all, Getting rid of the drugs, thugs, losers, whatever else you said…? hahahaha what kind of perfect world are you living in? Druggys are at EVERY high school, anywhere. and thugs? what hood do you know of thats in blountville? haha. Here’s my opinion, get a life!
**oh and for all you smart eduacted adults on here please start learning the correct forms of ‘their’. Its so annoying to read them used incorrectly.
Ex: “They deserve there punishment.“
INCORRECT. The word ‘there’ would be used correctly if for example used in a sentance like so: “Look over there!“
CORRECT: “They deserve their punishment.“
The word ‘their’ is the correct form of showing possession for the word ‘them’
I am not on here to argue with you all, friends of the vandalizers. I am just typing on here to defend a principal that has done her job and done her job well. People can read these comments and form their own opinions. I do know one of the boys personally, and I will tell him he is an idiot next time I see him. Thank you.
Bottom line—The boys took a senior prank way too far and the principal is not letting them get away with it. Sorry friends of the vandalizers. I guess you all should have tried to stop them before they “ruined the rest of their lives.“
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