Turpin enters agreement with state, Jenkins case pending

January 14, 2026 by Ben Pounds

Former Clinton High School assistant baseball coach and teacher Clay Turpin has reached an agreement with the state of Tennessee in a grade-changing case.

Under a judicial diversion agreement reached Jan. 9, Turpin will have the charges expunged after completing 11 months and 29 days of probation, according to his attorneys.

Turpin was charged with tampering with or destroying government records in connection with a grade-altering incident at Clinton High School that led the school system to fire him on May 8, 2024.

“Although we believe Clay had compelling legal defenses that could have resulted in the outright dismissal of his charges, the outcome reached today made sense for Clay, and allows him to avoid the time, expense and stress involved in contesting the case further,” attorneys Jefferey C. Collier and Travis E. Dorman said in a statement. They added that Turpin looks forward to moving on with his life with a clean record.

The attorneys described Turpin as a “promising young man who found himself in an unfortunate situation due in large part to the actions and directives of those with far more experience and power than him.”



Jenkins case

Former Clinton High School guidance counselor Carrie Jenkins still faces a charge of tampering with government documents related to the same incident.

Jenkins’ attorney, Matt Ooten, confirmed that the state dismissed one charge of altering documents, but the case will proceed on another count. He said the dismissed charge stemmed from reliance on inaccurate information provided by the school district.

“While the court found the low legal standard of probable cause was met to bind the case over to a grand jury, we want to be unequivocally clear: Carrie Jenkins is innocent, and we are confident that a full and fair examination of the facts will lead to her complete exoneration,” Ooten said.

Ooten said testimony described another teacher as changing 484 grades without facing charges, while he said his client changed one grade by a single point — from a 69 to a 70 — in a system where the grading scale changed months later, making a 69 a passing grade.

“Testimony revealed that credit recovery teachers received no training and were unaware of critical school board policies,” Ooten said. “The school district’s own superintendent couldn’t define key terms in his own school board policies. This is the broken system in which Ms. Jenkins was forced to operate.”





Clay Turpin



Carrie Jenkins