Laura Wills-Coppelman speaks before the Shelby County Board of Education on Jan. 22, 2026. Wills-Coppelman is one of the founders of Institutional Complicity Kentucky (ICKY), which has advocated for House Bill 4. (Justin Hicks / LPM)One woman said her principal gave her gifts and played love songs for her on his guitar.Another said her school’s basketball coach coerced her into sex weeks after she graduated.A third woman said her teacher sexually abused her throughout high school, and married her the day after she turned 18.This group of Shelby County Public Schools graduates are sharing their stories to show the world what grooming, misconduct and sexual abuse look like in schools, and to call for change.Click the player above to listen to their stories.Below is a transcript of the story:HOST INTRO: Women are speaking out in Shelby County about being the targets of alleged sexual misconduct when they were students. They’re calling for legislative changes to end a pervasive problem in Kentucky schools. Jess Clark with the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting has this story.At a Martha Layne Collins High School basketball game in January, students and parents seemed unified as they cheered the Titans against Anderson County.But underneath there were cracks.The Titans were playing without their longtime coach, a Collins High School teacher named Chris Gaither. Gaither was suspended for the second time in just two months over allegations of sexual misconduct. Gaither has not responded to requests for comment.DELAINEY GALBRETH: It’s a little weird because this wasn’t the first time we’ve had like creepy teachers, in the area.That’s 13-year-old Delainey Galbreth, a member of the Collins’ dance team.Galbreth’s older sister Delilah is a Collins High School junior. She notes that in 2024another teacher and coach resigned after he was accused of sexually abusing a student in 2016.DELILAH GALBRETH: It makes you feel unsafe.She’s among many in this community who are not happy with how the district, Shelby County Public Schools, has handled allegations against Gaither.HALEY WEDDLE: It seemed they were more worried about his comfortabilty than my own, or any of the students.31-year-old Haley Weddle is a 2014 Collins graduate whose allegations prompted the district to take action. She’s part of a group of women calling for change, not just in Shelby County, but across the state of Kentucky to keep kids safe from grooming and sexual abuse in schools.Weddle was a student manager of the boys basketball team. She says towards the end of her senior year — after she turned 18 — Gaither, the 30-year-old teacher and coach she worked with, started asking her questions about her sexual history and texting her a lot.WEDDLE: He would ask about boys and if I was okay with having like a no-strings-attached relationship.JESS CLARK: In general, or with him specifically?WEDDLE: In general, or about the boy that I was seeing. But it feels very calculated. Weddle now believes this was grooming – a tactic used to test or break down boundaries with students with the goal of eventually having sexual contact. Two weeks after she graduated, Weddle says Gaither kissed her when she was babysitting his kids. She was confused and upset, and hoped to get answers the next day when he invited her over again. But when she got there, she says, he brought her into the bedroom, where he had sex with her. Weddle says she didn’t want to have sex, but she didn’t know how to leave.WEDDLE: It felt like a really impossible spot to be in.When Weddle first spoke to Shelby County Public Schools officials about Gaither in November, they suspended him, and asked Weddle to give a written statement. But before she had a chance to deliver it, they reinstated the coach. That decision drew fierce blowback from some in the community. Then the district re-suspended Gaither and fired him at the end of January. District leaders have not explained their decisions, except to say they consulted with attorneys. Superintendent Joshua Matthews declined an interview, citing ongoing due process. Gaither is appealing his termination.2001 Shelby County Public Schools graduate Laura Wills-Coppelman says the Gaither situation is more evidence that the district has a pattern of mishandling sexual misconduct allegations.WILLS-COPPELMAN: There are broader questions that need to be raised about transparency and public trust when these investigations happen internally.Wills-Coppelman has her own story. When she was at Shelby County High School in the early 2000s, she said the principal paid her so much attention it fueled a countywide rumor that the two were in a sexual relationship, and when her parents brought their concerns to the district, the superintendent refused to let them file a written complaint. Wills-Coppelman still gets emotional when she reads from the notes her mother wrote down after the meeting with the superintendent, Leon Mooneyhan.WILLS-COPPELMAN: “Bobbie, that's my mom, asked him, ‘Do I need to get an outside agency such as the state school board or attorney general's office to investigate?’ He chuckled and said, ‘They aren't going to bother with something little like this.’”Mooneyhan, the former superintendent, has not responded to an interview request.The former principal, Jim Flynn, went onto a prominent education career in the state. He’s currently the executive director of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents. Flynn denies any wrongdoing, and pointed to a state board’s decision to dismiss a complaint Wills-Coppelman filed against him in 2020.For Wills-Coppelman this moment is less about holding individual people accountable as it is systems – systems across the state that she says are not protecting students from grooming and sexual abuse in schools.WILLS-COPPELMAN: My goal really isn't about rehashing the past. My goal is exploring how we can take these painful experiences, and learn from them and do better. When Wills-Coppelman first went public with her allegations in 2020, several other Shelby County graduates messaged her privately to say they admired her bravery. One was Weddle. Another was Hannah Ross.ROSS: My name is Dr. Hannah Ross. I’m an educator of 20 years and now a school principal.When Ross found out what happened in Weddle’s case, she found the courage to attend the Shelby County Board of Education meeting at the end of last year, and publicly share her own allegations of being groomed and sexually abused by a Shelby County High School teacher in the early 2000s.The day after Ross turned 18 in 2002, the teacher married her, and got a job in another school district to avoid repercussions.ROSS: The worst part of this story is that almost everyone connected to the school system at that time watched this unfold and did nothing to protect me from him.Ross said the principal, Jim Flynn, removed her from the teacher’s classes when rumors became too hard to ignore, but didn’t investigate or alert the authorities. In an email to KyCIR, Flynn denied knowing about Ross’ relationship with the teacher.I met up with Ross one evening and we talked in her truck while she waited for her youngest daughter to finish volleyball practice. Ross stayed married to the teacher for 22 years. When she divorced her ex about two years ago, it had been a long time coming.ROSS: About 10 years ago, there was, you know, someone that was working with one of my kids that was a male that was messaging them, texting them, and I immediately was like, “That is not okay. That's not acceptable. You don't do that as a coach.” And it made me think, “Well, hang on — that's what happened to me.”Ross had waited 26 years to share her story publicly because so much was on the line once she did. She worried about her relationship with the three daughters she has with her ex, and her job as school principal in a nearby county.ROSS: It would be devastating if I lost my relationship with my girls because of this.But, Ross says, it's a risk she’s willing to take if sharing her story keeps Kentucky kids safe.Ross, Weddle and Wills-Coppelman are calling for change. And in response, Shelby County Public School leadership has proposed bringing in third-party investigators when staff are accused of sexual misconduct.For the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting I’m Jess Clark, in Shelbyville. ...read more read less