Reggie Barnes, past superintended of West Tallahatchie Schools

Mr. Barnes is featured in the documentary "LaLee's Kin." He had been hired to bring up the district schools from probationary status: they were in danger of being taken over by the state because of the low test scores.

He did bring up the scores. They've gone down again now that he's left. At the time the documentary was being made, while he knew his students lived in poverty, he didn't realize that some of them had no running water and had to bathe in 5 gallon buckets.

He's accomplished amazing things. He ended his talk by telling us, in different words, that teaching, that helping these kids, is a task put on us by God, and that one day we'll have to account for our actions if we don't care enough and act like we care enough.

When you see the documentary, you'll see how much he's aged. That was some job he had, and damn, he put everything into it.