The Tennessee State Senate passed a bill allowing teachers to be armed in the classroom following a chaotic discussion that included state troopers clearing spectators from the gallery above.Demonstrators in the crowd shouted their opposition to the legislation and one woman could be heard saying, “We’re all Covenant mothers,” referring to last year’s school shooting in Nashville that killed six people.

When Lawrence Blackwell moved his family to Tennessee in 2010 to work for the University of Memphis, he chose to send his son to a unique Pre-K program operated by his new employer.The experience was so positive Blackwell kept his son on the university campus and enrolled him in its elementary school.

Paige Hodge admitted to being a little nervous before speaking to the Tennessee Senate Education Committee Wednesday, but the topic was one the Nashville School of the Arts senior feels passionately about.Hodge serves as a youth assembly leader for the Southern Movement Committee, an organization that fights the school to prison pipeline. She told senators that she and hundreds of fellow students she’s worked with all believe conflict resolution needs to be taught in schools.

The special session on public safety ended much as it has proceeded over the last week, with chaos.After the session wrapped up in the House, Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, and Representative Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, collided with each other as Sexton was making his way out of the chamber and Pearson and fellow Representative Justin Jones, D-Nashville, were holding signs close to the speaker’s face.