Austin East High/Magnet

My son graduates from Austin East this May and Principal Benny Perry and the staff have done an excellent job of turning this school around. Initially I did not want my son to attend, but now I am glad he did. Also the Project Grad staff does everything they can to make sure seniors apply and get scholarships.

I live by the school and their high school when games are going on the noise is affecting most of the neighborhoods sleep and family time.They have to keep the students til four o'clock just to help the kids learn more. They have a lot of fights and the athority is low and really do not take affect.The school should be improved by helping the students instead of letting the students do what they want.

i am a substitute teacher at Austin East for the past two years.I am sad to say that the majority of the students seem little interested in an education, they are more concerned with their cell phone and their i pad than they are about their books. Many have a "no care attitude." I have heard some pitiful stories from among the students about their home life. Very few students live with both their mother and their father and many live with only one parent or a grandparent. Austin East is filled with some great teachers who study and plan and teach hard but if a student does not wish to learn then all the teacher's efforts are in vain. I am saddened to see freshmen girls already expecting a baby and their are several confessing lesbian relationships. The answer must begin in the home with parents seeing to it that their children care about an education. My father had an old fashion method of getting my attention, many don't use it today, it is called "a belt." If AE continues on the road it is on, it is DOOMED in the near future!

I would like to thank assistant principal, Mr Caruthers, for his hard work for my kids. Several of them have told me personally that if not for his care and genuine concern they would no longer be in school period. Hats off to you Mr Caruthers, That is the type of administration we need in Knox County. May you go places in your career.