When testing in my app to see if the form will store to MYSQL DB it tells me a field cant be blank when it is not.

class UsersController < ApplicationController
 before_action :set_user, only: [:show, :edit, :update, :destroy]

  def index 
    @user = User.all
  end

  #GET /users/new
  def new
    @user = User.new
  end

  #GET /users/1/edit
  def edit
  end

  # POST /users
  # POST /users.json
  def create
    @user = User.new

    respond_to do |format|
      if @user.save
        format.html { redirect_to @user, notice: 'Employee was successfully created.' }
        format.json { render action: 'show', status: :created, location: @user }
      else
        format.html { render action: 'new'}
        format.json { render json: @user.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
      end
    end
  end

  # PATCH/PUT /users/1
  # PATCH/PUT /users/1.json
  def update
    respond_to do |format|
      if @user.update(user_params)
        format.html { redirect_to @user, notice: 'Employee was successfully updated.'}
        format.json { head :no_content }
      else
        format.html { render action: 'edit'}
        format.json { render json: @user.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity }
      end
    end
  end

  # DELETE /users/1
  # DELETE /users/1.json
  def destroy
    @user.destroy
    respond_to do |format|
      format.html { redirect_to users_url }
      format.json { head :no_content }
    end
  end

  private
  # uses callbacks to share common setup / constraints between actions
  def set_user
    @user = User.find(params[:id])
  end

  def user_params
    params.require(:user).permit(:first_name, :middle_name, :last_name, :badge_number, :telephone, :email, :password_digest)
end

end

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_secure_password

  validates :email, presence: true

  validates :badge_number, presence: true

  before_save :downcase_email

  def downcase_email
    self.email = email.downcase
  end

end

here is my new.html.erb:

<h1>Create New Employee</h1>

<%= render 'form' %>

<%= link_to 'Back', users_path %>