I am a former teacher in Tennessee. I have always had excellent performance evaluations, no parent complaints, and nothing objectionable in my personnel file. However, after teaching in an adjoining county for a couple of years to gain experience as a guidance counselor, I decided to try to get a job back in my own county. However, I have been told that my former principal of the school in the county where I previously taught for fourteen years has been making several negative calls and derogatory comments about me that are not true and this has prevented me from getting another teaching job. He has, in fact, inititated much of the contact and has not been called by these prospective employers. Do I have any legal recourse? His comments are really damaging my reputation as an educator which I worked very hard to build. 