Greenup County Schools, particularly McKell Elementary, is under fire following allegations of child abuse, neglect, and system cover-ups.
Social media users and community members said the district’s leaders, from teachers up to the superintendent and school board, failed in their basic responsibility.
The controversy centers on reports that multiple McKell Elementary students, including five nonverbal boys, were subjected to physical and emotional abuse at the hands of trusted educators.
Teachers, including Michael Lyons, Mackenzie Rice, Ashley Trissler, and Faith Jordan, have been directly named.
At the same time, higher-ranking officials, such as Special Education Director Melissa Latimer, Vice Principal Victoria “Vicky” Wireman, Principal Tiffani Underwood, and Superintendent Traysea Moresea, have been accused of looking the other way.
As per the Facebook post of Emily Campbell, music teacher Emily Spears, speech therapists Melissa Jaco and Bethany Meadows allegedly ignored evidence of abuse.
Families also claimed a school resource officer was used not to protect victims, but to intimidate parents during early meetings about the allegations.
Some parents said the board repeatedly turned them away from meetings under the pretense of “full capacity,” while holding sessions in rooms with as few as 25 chairs.
Donna Hall Tavis, an owner of Tavis Crafts, took to her official Facebook handle and wrote,
I attended the Greenup County School Board meeting this evening to express my concerns over the 19 days and 1188 counts of abuse in the special needs classroom at McKell Elementary that occurred last fall and to ask what changes had been made to insure this never happens again. Tripp was not in that classroom and since he’s known as the Mayor of McKell he has been loved and treated well. But this year he has a new teacher, a new aide and a new therapist that we know nothing about. The same people who hired those four monsters who tortured those children are the same ones who are hiring now so you can understand where my concern stems from. When Sarah and Jeff were in school and we attended school board meetings, questions were asked and answered. Not so now! Only five of us spoke and I was last. After the other four spoke and NONE of their questions (and there were many) were met with complete silence, I thought what’s the use in asking questions if no one addresses them. But I spoke my piece anyway. My only question was “What good does it do to have cameras in the classroom if no one is monitoring them?” No response (however I did appreciate Lance for smiling at me the whole time). Maybe that’s just the way things work nowadays and I can only hope that those questions will be discussed among the school board members and changes will be made but how will we ever know? All Greenup County residents need to be involved in making sure this never happens again in any of our schools.
Donna Hall Tavis
Additionally, Alice Jean Spears, a resident of Greenup, Kentucky, wrote,
Just go sit in a board meeting and you’ll see 5-6 chair people who is in charge of staff and our children’s safety, and realize not one of them give two shits about those 5 nonverbal boys from mckell who was abused, every minute of the day one child was abused, being passed around by those who was supposed to protect him and them, by “drop kicking” “making him bleed” “pinching” “kissing and cuddling” just to name a few things. With a lawyer present in the room, one of them could have spoke up and empathized with the concerns; those boys, the families, the community and the whole situation. You would expect at least ONE, if not ALL to give parents a little peace of mind. But, nope. Wrong. They smirked and moved on to talk about handbooks.
Alice Jean Spears
Emily Campbell also mentioned that in recent years, two adult male coaches, Matt Miller and Michael Lyons, were arrested on charges related to inappropriate conduct with minors.
Miller is already in prison, while Lyons awaits trial.
She also mentioned that last year, Greenup County lost a cheerleader to suicide, which families said was linked to unchecked harassment.
However, community members are now urging state intervention. They argue that the school board’s silent treatment, from limiting public access to allegedly deleting security footage, has broken trust.
Several social media users also commented on Campbell’s post and raised their concerns. Jessica Bennett, a cosmetologist at Mainstream Hair Company, wrote,
I can’t speak for anything but one of the speech therapist mentioned we see and we absolutely love her
Jessica Bennett
Holly Rhea, who works at Community Action Kentucky, commented,
The Bullying has always been a issue my brother left Mckell Middle after my mom had a restraining order on 1 of his teachers who let students hold him down and stab him with pencils. She also called the state and had records of the school trying to protect the students and teachers then. This was around 2007 so not much has changed in almost 20 years.
Holly Rhea
