May 19, 2026
By MEALAND RAGLAND-HUDGINS
Rutherford County Schools
As a young child growing up in Detroit, summer break meant two things for Sumatra Drayton — performing at the weekly backyard talent show and playing school.
“We’d perform a Motown Revue. You might be The Supremes, The Four Tops or Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. We picked our songs and worked all week for the show that was going to happen on Friday in the backyard,” Drayton recalled. “Detroit is different from most big cities, so we had houses with big porches and big yards. We set the porch up with chairs and a teacher's desk, and we would play school.
“I played school my whole life, but didn't really think about being a teacher,” she said.
Principal of Holloway High School since 2012, Drayton will retire at the end of the current school year. She came to Rutherford County Schools in 1999 after 13 years as Tennessee State University’s director of cardiopulmonary clinical education.
Though she never saw herself as an educator, her parents worked in educational settings. Her father ran Michigan’s Wayne County Youth Home, which operated similarly to the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center, while her mother worked as a truancy officer in the Wayne County school district.
Drayton said it was her mother who pushed her to pursue respiratory therapy, an emerging program being offered at the local community college, despite a full ride to a small Christian college.
“Being the oldest child and being obedient, I went. I thank my mom for it, because I was never out of work,” she said.
Not long after finishing the program, Drayton was hired by the same community college as a clinical instructor. Once she moved to Tennessee, Drayton worked at Meharry Medical College’s hospital and Centennial Medical Center before joining Tennessee State University.
Smyrna became home for Drayton, her husband Alonzo and their family. The Draytons opened their home as foster parents but challenges with the middle school student placed in their care led to Drayton finding a job closer to home.
“I remember going to Smyrna Middle and I think it was (retiring Rockvale High principal Steve) Luker who was principal for that summer school. I explained the situation and asked if there were any jobs available for someone with my background,” Drayton said. “He told me health science was a new program and that LaVergne High and Smyrna High were hiring.
“The rest was pretty much history. I interviewed with LaVergne and liked it,” she continued. “I was at LaVergne for nine years and it was the best decision I could have made at the time.”
In some ways, having a background in healthcare prepared Drayton for a school setting. Maintaining an even keel when urgent situations arise has been the one trait that’s remained at the forefront.
“In healthcare, no matter how bad it is, you have to act as if you know what you’re doing, but in your head, you’re really thinking ‘What is even happening right now,’” Drayton said.
Terminology used in the medical setting didn’t always translate to what was happening in the school. In her first year at LaVergne High, a Code Red was called. In healthcare, that term meant evacuating the building due to a fire.
“It really meant we had to lock down. The teacher next door saw me escorting students down the hall and pulled us all into her classroom,” she recalled.
Drayton has three children working for Rutherford County Schools, but none started out as educators. Her son, Lonny, worked in corporate settings and is now a teacher and coach at Smyrna High. Eldest daughter Alonna, a registered dental hygienist, teaches the same program at Stewarts Creek High. Youngest daughter Kelsey is an educational assistant at Rock Springs Middle.
As retirement nears, Drayton said one of the biggest challenges has been changing other people’s perception of Holloway High. In December, the school held an open house to celebrate the location and restoration of the composite photos of its original graduating classes. It was a project Drayton devoted herself to for more than a decade.
“It may biggest thing we’ve done to make people see that this is a jewel, you know, that this is something special in this community. And it's been here all along,” she said.
She’ll miss interacting with students and celebrating their accomplishments, no matter how small they may seem to those outside Hollway. Over the past 14 years, many former students have come back to visit.
“This was a safe place for them. They felt they were protected. Sometimes I go to United Grocery Outlet, since it’s right here in the neighborhood, and I see a lot of parents who update me on what their kids are up to,” Drayton said. “I’m grateful for the time I had here. I didn't know this place existed when I moved here, but God knew, and put me where I needed to be. I wouldn't have wanted to do it anywhere else.”