Abandoned Hallways
🎒 Are Nashville’s elementary schools left exposed? · Tales from the Westside: The Can Man Can · Distracted driver rear-ends pedal tavern · Much more!
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Few cops, no scanners: are Nashville’s elementary schools left exposed?
From Megan Podsiedlik
After the 2023 Covenant School shooting, Tennessee created a grant program to put a full-time, armed school resource officer in every public school. Local police agencies can apply for up to $75,000 per school each year. Traditional public, charter, and alternative schools are eligible.
In Nashville, the grant money MNPD has received has mostly paid for officers who were already in place at Metro’s middle and high schools. Few elementary schools have benefited. According to MNPD, only 9 of the district’s 70 elementary schools currently have a dedicated SRO.
Metro Nashville Public Schools’ aversion to placing SROs in elementary schools is a longstanding one. “It criminalizes childhood behavior,” MNPS Director Dr. Adrienne Battle said of the initiative back in 2023.
Later that year, MNPD Chief John Drake became a convenient shield for MNPS’s resistance to placing SROs in elementary schools. On July 14, 2023, MNPD announced it needed just “20 officers to reach full strength.” The very next day, Chief Drake told local media that Metro was still short 170 officers and cited the shortage as the reason behind the police department’s rejection of state funding for SROs.
“If we pull 70 officers from the precincts and put them in schools and we leave the rest of the community vulnerable...with the way gun violence is, the prevalence of guns and the things we’re dealing with now, we don’t want to leave the rest of Nashville vulnerable,” said Drake at the time.
It appears MNPD is singing the same tune three years later.
“There are, unfortunately, not enough police officers to fully staff all schools without pulling from patrol and investigative components,” stated MNPD when recently asked about the continued shortage of SROs in MNPS elementary schools. “Staffing is a balance.”
Since the Covenant Shooting, MNPS has experienced its own tragedy. In the wake of the Antioch High School shooting in January 2025, local leaders began reassessing safety protocols implemented throughout the MNPS system. Despite past pushback on additional SROs and metal detectors, Director Battle expressed a willingness to explore additional safety measures after the AI weapon detection technology installed in the school failed to activate.
In February 2025, the MNPS Board of Education voted to install concealed weapon detection systems in all high schools throughout Davidson County. The new Evol systems have a multi-layer monitoring mechanism that detects metal objects and uses AI technology to scan the size, density, and shape of all concealed items.
But much like SROs, while the systems have since been installed in all high schools and middle schools, MNPS does not plan on installing the systems in elementary schools.
On Tuesday, the Metro Council approved MNPD’s application for a $4.2 million state grant to fund SROs at 56 MNPS elementary, middle, and high schools. For reference, MNPS has 160 schools. But the money won’t add any new officers, at elementary schools or otherwise.
🌾 Fall Festival at Brewington Farms RidgeRunner is hosting its first fall festival on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 10am to 4pm in Whitleyville, marking the ribbon-cutting for farm operations. Expect hay rides, a petting zoo, face painting, regional vendors, food and music, plus tours of the remaining lots in Brewington and Hawkesbury. It's free; RSVP to get the address and itinerary. (RSVP here)
✹ THE CAN MAN CAN
The sixteenth installment in Tales from the Westside
From Rachel Gladstone
Saturday mornings are pretty quiet in my little corner of the world, so it’s easy to hear the Can Man pushing down the alley towards my house. The rattle and hum of his rusted metal shopping cart herald his arrival, like the fife and drum of Civil War days, leading the troops into battle. An older, black gentleman with a wide, gentle smile, his shoulders are stooped, and his gait is slow but steady. Pausing every 20 feet or so, he liberates the bags filled with aluminum cans everyone has hung out for him on their back gates; that is, everyone but me.
Now it’s not like I didn’t save cans for him; I absolutely did! But it’s only when I hear the wonky wheels of his cart careening down the block that I realize I forgot to put them out. Admonishing myself with every step, I run from the back porch to the back gate, hoping to catch him. I don’t. And I watch in utter dismay as the Can Man comes to the end of the rutted, unpaved alley and hangs a right on Georgia Ave. at not-breakneck speed.
My first thought is to run after him, but I’m barefooted and not inclined to endure the certain pain that would come after even just a few steps. There’s definitely no time to retrieve my shoes from the house because by the time I get back here I’ll have lost him for sure. So, I do the next best thing: I jump up and down and begin screaming, “I have cans! I have cans!”
HEADLINES
- 🚲 Distracted driver rear-ends pedal tavern on Demonbreun, injuring 9
On Thursday night, a Toyota RAV4 hit the back of a pedal tavern carrying 12 people near 1033 Demonbreun St. Nine people were hurt, at least two of them seriously, Metro police said. The driver wasn’t injured and told officers he was distracted, but no charges had been reported yet. (NewsChannel 5) - ⚖️ Filing says Christa Pike’s execution team warned her vein had blown
A new filing in Davidson County Chancery Court says Tennessee went ahead with Pike’s September 30 execution even though her IV lines showed signs of not working. Staff spent nearly an hour trying to get IV access and met resistance pushing saline, but the physician never tried a central line. Pike lived through two doses of pentobarbital, and an ambulance was delayed by a 911 verification mix-up. The filing also cites problems in other executions. A hearing is set for November 6. (Tennessean)
✹ EARLY VOTING TRACKER
🗳️ Who's Voting Where Through Day 8 of 14: 665,602 early votes statewide, 76,307 in Davidson County. Our early voting tracker updates every morning with counts for all 95 counties, compared with the 2022 and 2018 midterms. Pick your county or look at the whole state to see where turnout stands (See the tracker)
DEVELOPMENT
- Eight firms vie to develop the state’s downtown parking lots near the Capitol (NBJ)
- Denver developer lands $164M loan for North Nashville data center (NBJ)
- BNA road widening and 7,700-space garage pushed back (NBJ)
- East Bank scrapyard sale named Deal of the Year (NBJ)
✹ PAMPHLETEER TOOLS
Pamphleteer Tools Council Watch tells you who funds your councilmember and how they vote. The Property Tax Calculator tells you what that cost you.
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
🎸 JP Harris @ The Basement, 9p, $19.78, Info
✨ Machine Girl @ Brooklyn Bowl, 8p, $34, Info
+ digital hardcore
🪕 Fast Track @ Station Inn, 9p, $25, Info
🎸 Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit w/ Amy LaVere @ Ryman Auditorium, 8p, $76, Info
🎸 Country Club Day ft. The Cowpokes @ Acme Feed & Seed, 12:30p, Free, Info
🎸 Kelley's Heroes @ Robert's Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info
SATURDAY
🎸 Teri Quinn and the Coyotes w/ Rina Ford @ The East Room, 8p, $15.42, Info
+ folkgaze
🎷 Nashville Jazz Festival @ 3rd and Lindsley, $35.66, Info
🪕 Nothin' Fancy @ Station Inn, 9p, $25, Info
🎸 Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit w/ Tony Thomas Three @ Ryman Auditorium, 8p, $76, Info
🎸 Kelley's Heroes @ Robert's Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info
SUNDAY
🎸 Edgehill @ The Basement East, 7:30p, $27.32, Info
+ Nashville indie-rock trio
🎷 Nashville Jazz Festival @ 3rd and Lindsley, $35.66, Info
🪕 Bluegrass Jam @ Station Inn, 7p, Free, Info
+ a night for musicians and singers from all over the world to gather and enjoy making music together
🪕 Sundays Between with Easy Green @ Tennessee Brew Works, 1p, Info
+ a fusion of two beloved musical genres – Bluegrass and the iconic sounds of the Grateful Dead!
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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Today's newsletter is brought to you by Davis Hunt, Megan Podsiedlik, and Camelia Brennan.