'The Real World: La Vergne High'?: Filmmaker Wants To Make TV Doc At Home Of The Wolverines

LA VERGNE, TN — A television producer has approached La Vergne High School principal Dirk Ash about filming a episodic documentary at the school next year, Ash told the Rutherford County Board of Education Tuesday.

"Forget the word 'reality,'" Ash told the board, according to The Tennessean. “I wouldn’t step off into anything that would negatively reflect on my kids."

Producer Greg Henry would likely begin filming in the fall. Henry's credits include "The Unknown Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima" for the Smithsonian Channel, "Oprah Winfrey’s Belief" for OWN, "Kids BBQ Championship" for the Food Network, "60 Days In" and "Behind Bars: Rookie Year" for A&E and "NOW with Bill Moyers" for PBS. His production company, Learning Tree Productions, began filming a documentary series at a Topeka, Kan., high school earlier this year.

"We have created an innovative framework for this project, as Topeka Public Schools is aware. In addition to our film crew, a handful of people who are not part of the Highland Park High School community and who are working with us will immerse themselves in the school to participate in life here, adding another viewpoint and outside perspective to the day-to-day workings of the school. To ensure they have an authentic experience during production, they will not identify themselves as participants in the project. We feel this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the community to participate in a television production process, but even more, the series will get people far beyond Kansas talking about what it means to go to high school in America today, from the challenges to the successes," according to Learning Tree's website.

Ash told the board he visited Highland Park High School and will visit Atlanta's Fulton County Jail, where "60 Days In" is filmed. He said he believes that La Vergne's demographics — the school is 30 percent white, 30 percent black and 30 percent Hispanic — provides a unique perspective into the American high school experience and that he looks forward to viewers to seeing a high school in action, warts and all.

"Transparency is what we are. I think I could see where we could do things better," he said, according to the Daily News Journal. "I think the teaching will be better and behavior will be better because the cameras are on. ... Trials and triumphs need to be told."

The school board will vote on the proposal at Thursday's meeting.