I struggled to find stories about Pickens High School in the time frame suggested, so I went with this story from 2010 about a PHS science teacher who was accused of sexual assault.
It was a surreal time when I was in ninth grade and this happened. Laura Lyles taught several of my friends, so there were a lot of questions about if anything had occurred with them. One person who was rumored to be involved was my mother’s best friend’s son, so that was an interesting situation to see play out from afar.
It was a situation that certainly made it hard for everyone to keep their attention at the work in front of them. Some made crude jokes, some were scared of being accused and others didn’t pay it any mind. What’s strange now is that I had completely forgotten about it until this assignment. In fact, it took several minutes for me to remember the teacher’s name.