Ex-FBI agent FHS c-justice teacher

Tom Bailey, FBI Special Agent who retired in September 2014 after 25 years, is looking to become a Farragut High School “special” criminal justice teacher.

“I was an instructor at the FBI Academy during my FBI career and enjoyed teaching in the classroom. One of my goals after retiring was to teach and Farragut High School has given me that opportunity. … I believe I can help the students in my classes at this stage of their lives,” Bailey, whose first day at FHS was Nov. 7, said. “I taught New Special Agents, forensic accountants and intelligence analysts about the investigative process and financial crimes investigations.”

This semester, which began Jan, 9, , “I have two principles of law, corrections and Security classes, and one Criminal Justice 3 class. The Criminal Justice 3 class focuses a lot on forensics,” Bailey said.

About his FHS students, Bailey said, “I think they are all interested in the variety of fields in the Criminal Justice system, whether it be a police officer, FBI agent, attorney, judge, corrections officer or private security. … The majority of the careers in the criminal justice system require some type of advanced education/training after high school so this program is a great starting point for them to learn about criminal justice system careers.

However, “I emphasize that the FBI hires people with a wide variety of backgrounds for the Special Agent position, and it isn't all attorneys and Criminal Justice majors,” Bailey said. “On the contrary, it is a wide variety of backgrounds such as teachers, nurses, engineers, police officers, military, CPAs, etc.

“The new agent classes I taught had a wide variety of backgrounds that included a couple of rocket scientists who decided they wanted to become FBI Agents,” he added.

To make class even more interesting, special presentations have included “a polygraph examiner” and “a bank robbery scenario where my students conducted a mock crime scene search, mock interviews with the subjects, and a mock trial with one of the subjects,” Bailey said. “I believe that they understand the material better if they are using a scenario to make the class more interesting.”