Knox County School Board Member makes insensitive comments towards a student and his immigrant family during unusual meeting

By any standard, the Knox County Board of Education’s April 6 meeting was unusual.Board member Susan Horn (District 5) was absent and board member Mike McMillan (District 8) missed parts of the meeting, leading to multiple tied votes on whether the district should approve Knoxville Preparatory School’s application to open the county’s second public charter school.Perhaps most surprising of all though, may be that one board member used her time during the discussion about Knox Prep to make insensitive and unsubstantiated comments about a student from an affiliated school.