Kristen Ellyson knows how hard it is to be a high school freshman. Just three years ago, she was one. Now a senior at J.R. Tucker High School, she’s among 100 upperclassmen who have signed up as mentors to help Tucker’s incoming freshman class get off to a smooth start as part of the school’s new Freshmen Academy program. “I remember coming in, you don’t know anyone,“ Ellyson said. “I wanted to make it a more enjoyable experience.“

J.R. Tucker High School’s former head football coach, arrested Tuesday for alleged sexually related involvement with two students, represents “a threat to society,“ a Henrico County prosecutor said yesterday. But Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Deana Malek was unsuccessful in keeping former teacher and coach William Macgregor “Mac” Leighton from getting bail.

J.R. Tucker High School’s former head football coach was released on $50,000 bond this afternoon and faces an August preliminary hearing on felony sex-related charges involving two students.

William Macgregor “Mac” Leighton, 31, faces decades in prison if convicted of five felony charges stemming from a relationship with an underage female student at Tucker that authorities say began in October.

J.R. Tucker High School’s head football coach surrendered to police today and is facing charges of soliciting child pornography and indecent liberties with a minor child.

Since the Supreme Court long ago settled the constitutionality of race-based school segregation, perhaps it should turn its attention to economic apartheid in education. The starkest examples of this economic divide can be found between the city and suburban schools. But even within the suburban jurisdictions, in school systems that are deemed sound, the chasms exist, pitting the old suburbs against the new.