Bradley County Schools and Cleveland City Schools teachers will receive information about their rights and responsibilities as professionals during a meeting Tuesday.

Tennessee Education Association staff lawyer Virginia McCoy will give an informative talk in the Cleveland High School Library at 4 p.m.

McCoy has worked as a staff attorney for TEA since 1989.

She has represented teachers “in suspension and dismissal hearings before both local boards of education and impartial hearing officers, in unemployment hearings before the Tennessee Department of Labor, and in licensure suspension and revocation proceedings before the Tennessee Department of Education,” according to a BCEA press release.

The meeting will also give local teachers a chance to ask questions about the new laws in education.

The past couple of years have brought many changes to education in Tennessee making it important for teachers to be informed on new laws and how it effects them.

BCEA president Barbara Harrison said the event is open to all teachers in these public school systems to help them keep up with changing guidelines.

TEA provides many program opportunities to local education associations each year. This year Cleveland Education Association wanted to have McCoy come. Later, the two local associations decided to partner and open the event to educators in both school systems.

“We thought it was particularly good because of all the legal issues (surrounding new laws, that we) are having to deal with,” Harrison said,

Harrison said being clear on rights and responsibilities is an ongoing process as new legislation continues to change and reform education.

According to a press release from the Bradley County Education Association, Virginia McCoy graduated from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a bachelor of arts degree in marketing and a juris doctor degree.

“I received a wonderful public school education in Knoxville... and I still strongly believe in public education as a place that fosters opportunity and equality. That is why I am an advocate for public schools and public school employees, and that is why I work for the Tennessee Education Association,” McCoy said in a press release.

Before working for TEA, McCoy was employed with the Tennessee Department of Revenue. She has also assisted TEA members in filing discrimination charges.

Teachers who wish to attend should call 472-3315 to register.