Bøger af Randy Turner

Some people just won't stay dead - Only a year after Cassandra Harper found her father murdered and slumped over the computer he gave her for her birthday, she begins receiving messages from him on that same computerAs Cassandra tries to find her father's killer, she slowly begins to wonder just what kind of a man he was and what kind of evil was he planning.And will she be able to stop him and his killer before she becomes the next victim?Devil's Messenger is a roller coaster ride of horror that you won't be able to put down. Grab your copy today!

If the shooter doesn't get them, the system will.The teachers at dysfunctional Franklin Heights High School are caught between ambitious administrators obsessed with meetings and standardized tests and a violent, drug-riddled, sex-crazed student body that has the run of the hallways.When the new school district superintendent strikes an unholy deal with a teen gang leader and drug dealer to keep students in line and improve the dropout rate, a reign of terror is unleashed on teachers and students alike.Until one student decides a gun is the answer to his problems.No Child Left Alive is a nightmarish look at 21st Century education in the kind of school that may be in your neighborhood. Grab your copy today!

From 1986 through 1999, reporter Randy Turner gave southwest Missouri readers a different look at sports through his Sports Talk columns. The columns not only covered the games, but offered a revealing look at the athletes who played in those games. Among the stories featured in this volume: -A football coach meets an eight-year-old girl who is permanently in a wheelchair because of a drunk driver -A cheerleader talks about her aunt, Nancy Cruzan, and the right-to-die case that went to the U. S. Supreme Court -A mother watches her daughter play her final high school volleyball match -The high school coach who murdered his wife and then committed suicide -A football legend returns to his home town after 25 years to be honored -The baseball great who fanned five Hall-of-Famers in a row -The high school girl who received her first kiss in front of 1,500 fans -A high school basketball player teaches Haitian children how to play the sport -A town tries to cope with the suicide of a football player -He played in one of the greatest Cotton Bowl games of all time, but this legend is stirred more by a high school rivalry -Family and friends help a basketball player whose house burns to the ground -On the day she was expected to lead her team to the state volleyball championship, funeral services are held for a star athlete -After an ACLU threat bans a pre-game prayer over the public address system, a community gathers in the end zone to pray -A football player overcomes a near-fatal accident to receive a college scholarship. The Best of Sports Talk relives the joys and sorrows of sports and of the people who participate in them.

In Newton County Memories, author Randy Turner, a veteran newspaper reporter and classroom teacher, offers stories about the people, places and activities that made living in Newton County, Missouri memorable.Those who have lived in the area can relive an era before texting and binge watching, when evening entertainment included cruising the Neosho Square, sports including baseball and the dangerous, but addictive bicycle soccer and meeting friends at the Brown Derby and Reta's.The memorable characters profiled in Newton County Memories include a 400-pound police chief who never had trouble maintaining law and order, the "cold-blooded assassin" who shot the student council president, the coach who started a civil war in his family by having his brother intentionally walked with the bases loaded and the woman mayor who was a Mann.Turner also profiles some of the people who inspired others, including unforgettable classroom teachers, a breast cancer survivor who helped others for more than three decades after her initial diagnosis and a 20-year-old murder victim whose life and poetry live on more than four decades later.Newton County Memories is an engaging trip down memory lane even. Turner captures the era in a way that will ensure these people will remain in readers' memories, even if they are reading about them for the first time.

When an EF-5 tornado destroyed one-third of Joplin, Missouri, and killed 161 people on May 22, 2011, the eyes of the nation were focused on the small city of 50,000. Its leaders, including men such as City Manager Mark Rohr and Superintendent of Schools C. J. Huff, received nationwide attention as they sought to return normalcy to a town that had suffered the worst tornado in the United States in six decades. Behind the scenes, however, the story was entirely different, as Rohr and Huff worked with a group of well-connected business interests to hijack the recovery effort and turn it into a way of obtaining everything they had always wanted for Joplin. That path led to the hiring of a master developer from Texas, David Wallace, with a long history of bankruptcies, SEC investigations, and accusations of fraud. Silver Lining in a Funnel Cloud is the story of the rise and downfall of City Manager Mark Rohr, amidst allegations of bullying and domestic abuse, Superintendent C. J. Huff, indulging in out-of-control spending that left the school district in a perilous financial situation, and Wallace, who left town in the dead of night, after never fulfilling any of his lofty promises. Silver Lining also tells the story of ordinary citizens who battled to reclaim their city and school district, battling not only the moneyed special interests, but also a newspaper that fought them every step of the way. Silver Lining in a Funnel Cloud tells the story of the Joplin Tornado heroes who were created by the media and the real heroes, the people of the community who never lost sight of who they were and what it means to be from Joplin, Missouri.

The deadly tornado that ripped through Joplin, Missouri May 22, 2011 killed 161 people and left 500 East Middle School students without a school.Their tornado stories- The students write their own stories about their harrowing tornado experiencesTheir first year attending school in a warehouse- the students and teachers tell the stories of how they turned a warehouse into a school and a homeScars from the Tornado is the heartwarming story of 500 students who made it through the worst tornado that hit the United States in six decades and the one student who did not make it.

Through four decades as a reporter, editor, classroom teacher, blogger and author, Randy Turner has presented a powerful voice for public education. Classroom Confidential tells stories that touch on many aspects of the educational system. Many of those stories are included in this book including Turner's dogged investigative reporting on efforts by billionaire Rex Sinquefield and Missouri governors Matt Blunt and Eric Greitens to privatize education, as well as the impact of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos' family and other supporters of the charter school/voucher movement on education Much of Classroom Confidential features Turner's writing on teaching experiences and teachers and students that leave a lasting effect on the reader. The stories include a profile of a man who spent decades of his life serving as a school board member, how the rape and murder of a fourth grade girl forever destroyed the innocence of her classmates and her community, a school shooting, a guest speaker who received a surprising question from a student, some thoughts about some of his students who died young, a football coach who opened his heart to a six-year-old, wheelchair-bound drunk-driving victim, and three teachers who died recently after spending their lives helping children. Other essays touch on a mother's battle to have her son, a victim of the Joplin Tornado, recognized at what would have been his high school graduation ceremony, two high school students who were planning to sing as part of a trio at the state competition, but ended up performing a duet when the third member committed suicide, and a field trip that provided lasting memories. Classroom Confidential opens the doors to our schools and shares stories of people you will never forget.

Earlier this year, former Joplin, Missouri classroom teacher Randy Turner struck a chord with teachers across the United States in a Huffington Post essay in which he recommended that young people not become classroom teachers. That essay, which received more than 180,000 Facebook likes and was shared more than 50,000 times, is included in Let Teachers Teach, a collection of Turner's essays on today's education, his own teaching, and colleagues and students who have touched his life. In Let Teachers Teach, Turner, a former newspaper reporter and editor, offers his first collection of essays detailing the problems in American education and most of those problems, he says, start with those who are needlessly trying to reform it. Turner addresses the attacks made on teachers, the billionaire reformers, teaching to the test, and the lies that are told to make discipline statistics look better. The book also features Turner's essays on a former student's suicide, tributes to a fired principal and an inspirational teacher, and his writing on the May 22, 2011, Joplin Tornado and its effect and on his school and his teaching. The collection also includes Turner's updates on several of the essays. The book is Turner's sixth non-fiction work, following The Turner Report, Newspaper Days, 5:41: Stories from the Joplin Tornado, Spirit of Hope: The Year After the Joplin Tornado, and Scars from the Tornado: One Year at Joplin East Middle School. He has also written three novels.

Death and destruction for as far as a person could see. The EF5 tornado that ripped a six-mile swath through Joplin, Missouri May 22, 2011, killed 161 people and changed the city forever. This book, written by veteran reporters Randy Turner and John Hacker and including stories written by survivors, is the original version. An expanded, updated 10-year anniversary edition was published in April 2021.

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Lamar advertises itself as the city where legends begin, and the city of four thousand lives up to that slogan. It was the place where frontier lawman Wyatt Earp first wore a star and where President Harry S Truman was born. When Truman successfully brought World War II to an end, the submarine fleets in the Atlantic and Pacific were commanded by Lamar High School graduates. Lamar''s legends, however, are not limited to those who found fame after they left the city. Lamar was home to the longest-serving mayor in Missouri history, a legendary newspaperman, a football team that captured seven straight state championships and an infamous killer whose life was ended by a lynch mob. Author Randy Turner details these stories and much more.