The local school system discontinued using the building for a school in 1991. In 2005, Leigh Burch proposed to turn the school building into condos. The county commission turned him down (thank you Mr. Pinkston). In 2008, the building was purchase by Bahman Kasraei in his wife's name, Parisa Kadkhoda, on a whim. He paid $117,700, outbidding David Dewhirst by $11,700.

In Oct. 2010, Josh Flory reported the city's Better Building Board was scheduled to discuss the property and the poor condition on Oct. 28, 2010. The building was designed by Charles Barber and is " included on the Knox Heritage Fragile 15 list of endangered historic properties."

The Better Building Board action was to issue a condemnation order on the building. "The BBB issued an emergency order to secure the building, which may involve fencing rather than boarding up windows and doors."

Must not have been much of an emergency considering we were there on January 16, 2011 (nearly three months later), and no action has been taken.

Pictures of the building as of Jan. 16, 2011, can be seen here.

Rebecca Ferrar reported on Nov. 28, 2010, City of Knoxville top code offenders, which included Bahman Kasraei (husband of Parisa Kadkhoda who owns the South Knox High School building). "One of the top offenders of city code violations, Kasraei owns 13 rental properties that are frequently cited for problems, according to a News Sentinel review of city data."

Shame on the City of Knoxville and Knox County. Once again they stick it to residents of South Knoxville.

As said by Monty Stanley, one of South Knoxville's great citizens, the community is "at our wit’s end. We would like to see the building saved, but it needs to be secured." Stanley noted that the "dangerous" building is one block away from Dogwood Elementary School and is adjacent to the Teachers Training Center.