WASHINGTON COUNTY — A Washington County superintendent submitted his notice of retirement Tuesday night following recent controversy over a column he wrote recalling fantasizing as a teenage boy about a female volleyball player.

The Nashville District 99 School Board accepted Nashville Community High School Superintendent Ernie Fowler’s retirement during a reconvened meeting Tuesday night. Fowler’s retirement agreement was among the action items left on the agenda from Monday night’s regular meeting.

His retirement is effective this month.

Last month Fowler penned in his weekly column for the local Nashville newspaper about playing volleyball during a P.E. class when he was 15 years old. He recalled seeing the girl of his high school fantasy world and that his eyes were in direct line with her “well-developed assets which were hidden under a T-shirt with the word ‘bullets’ sprawled across the front.”

The response was swift and angry. Fowler issued an apology in response and announced he would no longer be writing the column.

But the teachers union called for Fowler’s resignation or removal over the column, which it deemed “unacceptable.”