Former band teacher at Kentucky school indicted for rape, sex abuse

A Former Jefferson County band teacher has been indicted for rape and sex abuse, according to a news release from the Jefferson Commonwealths’ Attorney office.

On Dec. 18, a Jefferson County grand jury returned an indictment against Cyr T. Wilson charging him with three counts of third-degree rape and one count of first-degree sex abuse, the news release said.

The indicted charges are in connection to a series of crimes from Aug. 1, 2017 through June 30, 2020 while he worked with students, the news release said.

Wilson has been reassigned from his position as band director and teacher at the Academy @ Shawnee as a result of district policies, JCPS spokesperson Carolyn Callahan said.

He was officially employed by JCPS in January 2020 as a teacher at the Academy @ Shawnee, she said.

Callahan said according to Wilson’s resume, while in college from 2017 to 2019, he was the Marching Band Ensemble Coordinator in connection with the Band Boosters at Ballard High School. This was not JCPS employment, she said.

Wilson is scheduled to be arraigned at 1 p.m. Jan. 8, the Commonwealth’s Attorneys news release said.

A Sept. 2022 Herald-Leader investigation showed of the 194 cases of teachers who voluntarily surrendered or had their license revoked or suspended from 2016 to 2021, 61% lost their license due to sexual misconduct. The overwhelmingly majority of those cases involved male teachers and teenage girls.

A 2023 bill would have upped training requirements for teachers and required more disclosure of past allegations of sexual misconduct. The bill, however, did not pass the full Senate. The bill’s sponsor Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, has said he plans to file a similar bill in the upcoming legislative session that begins in January.

This story was originally published December 20, 2023 at 3:51 PM.