Putnam Schools To Allow Nose Studs For Teachers

Putnam County Schools looking to amend its teacher attire policy after several teachers reached out asking the board to permit nose piercings.

The policy change approved on first reading after the School Board considered the idea. It will be reviewed again in April. Director of Schools Corby King said the requests were sent to the district’s Collaborative Conferencing Team for review. He said the team recommended allowing two-millimeter nose studs.

“We have teachers on both sides of this,” King said. “Some that want to just see the whole thing done away with and let them choose. We’ve got teachers who still don’t want piercings. We’ve heard from both, but this is what the Collaborative Conferencing Committee recommended, and I’m sure there will still be lots of discussion between now and next month when we get to that second reading.”

King said the Collaborative Conferencing Committee is a group tasked with crafting teacher contracts. He said the amended policy they recommended falls more in line with community standards.

“This is one that the board was comfortable with,” King said. “And I think it’s a good concession or a good first step from the policy that we currently have with no piercings.”

King said the Collaborative Conferencing Committee used to be a Negotiations Team before a change in state law. He said the committee includes teacher representatives and members of the Putnam County Education Association and the Professional Educators of Tennessee.

“Now, instead of having sides and it being a contentious negotiation, they actually just come together and work out, hammer out issues in that committee,” King said. “Things that teachers would like to see and the board would like to see, and it becomes the teacher contract.”