KY teacher charged with failing to report abuse of student. 3rd investigation at same school.
A Pike County Schools teacher has been charged with failure to report the child abuse of a student by another instructor, according to court records.
Christopher Salyers, 41, was charged Tuesday in Pike District Court with failure to report child abuse. He is the third teacher at Belfry High School currently under investigation by Kentucky State Police, Superintendent Reed Adkins told the Herald-Leader Sunday.
Salyers has been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, Adkins said.
Two other teachers at Belfry High School are under police investigation for having inappropriate communication with students. The Salyers case is connected to one of them, Adkins said.
On or about Nov. 4, 2022, Salyers was informed by a female student, an underage minor, that she was involved in a relationship with a male teacher at the same school, a criminal citation said. Salyers failed to report the relationship which subjected the minor to further abuse, said a court document.
Adkins said Salyers’ charge was connected to a Herald-Leader report in September that Nathan Coleman, a teacher who was also listed on a school roster as an assistant football coach, resigned one day after district officials turned allegations of inappropriate communications with a student over to Kentucky State Police.
Salyers was cited for the alleged failure to report abuse and will be arraigned in Pike District Court on Oct. 25, according to court records.
Kentucky State Police officials at Pikeville did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.
Adkins previously told the Herald-Leader that in an unrelated matter, a second teacher whose name was not released has been suspended in connection with inappropriate communication with a student. Kentucky State Police are also investigating that situation.
Of the three police investigations at Belfry High School involving teachers, Adkins said Sunday: “It is very unfortunate.”
In a September 2022 series, the Herald-Leader obtained 194 cases of teachers who voluntarily surrendered or had their license revoked or suspended from 2016 to 2021. Of those, 118 — 61% — lost their license due to sexual misconduct. The overwhelming majority of those cases involved male teachers and teenage girls. Currently, Kentucky requires teachers to have training on sexual abuse but that training is not specific to misconduct between school staff and students.
Laws targeting sexual misconduct and school officials have failed to gain traction in the General Assembly.
A bill that have made it more difficult for Kentucky teachers who have been accused of prior sexual misconduct to move from school district to school district and up training and screening requirements for teachers failed to pass the legislature earlier this year. It unanimously passed the House but failed to pass the Senate.
This story was originally published October 15, 2023 at 11:35 AM.