[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 82 (Wednesday, June 19, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1098]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING JUANITA CANNON

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 19, 2002

  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, Knoxville's ``hugging principal'' has 
retired.
  One of our leading educators, Juanita Cannon, has retired after 40 
years of outstanding work with young people.
  Mrs. Cannon was a teacher for 26 years before becoming a principal.
  She taught health, physical education, sociology, and biology and 
coached tap dancers, cheerleaders, and girls basketball and volleyball 
teams.
  She became known as the ``hugging principal'' because no one, 
parents, students, teachers, came to her school without getting a hug.
  She could have retired five years ago, but she chose instead to take 
on one of the toughest assignments in the Knox County School System.
  She became principal of the Transition School, overseeing students 
who had been in criminal trouble or who had been determined to be 
unruly and out-of-control at other schools.
  She said: ``When someone would ask me if I worked with criminals, I 
would say `Excuse me. I work with young men who made a bad choice. They 
just got caught. They served their time.'''
  She is a woman who knows there is some good even in the worst people 
and she worked to try to bring out the best in everyone.
  Knoxville City Councilman Raleigh Wynn said: ``Juanita had a way of 
getting along with the worst of the worst and the best of the best. She 
didn't show partiality with people.''
  She jokingly referred to herself as my spouse since she used my 
spouse's ticket to the 1993 inauguration of President Clinton.
  I want to congratulate her on her retirement and on her 40 years of 
service to young people.
  This Nation is a better place because of the dedication and simple 
human kindness of Juanita Cannon.




                          ____________________