Kentucky school safety officer says he was fired after reporting suspected child abuse
A former Floyd County Schools safety officer has sued the district, claiming he was fired earlier this year after reporting suspected sex crimes against children and cooperating with a law enforcement investigation.
Thomas Gearheart, who served as the district’s chief safety officer for more than four years, filed the whistleblower lawsuit Thursday against the Floyd County Board of Education and Superintendent Tonya Williams. He alleges the district retaliated against him after he raised concerns about the way they handled an investigation involving a school bus driver accused of sexually assaulting a minor.
The lawsuit scrutinizes how Floyd County Schools handled two, separate sexual assault allegations involving their bus drivers and whether school officials prioritized protecting the district from liability over promptly involving the police. Gearheart’s allegations also raise questions about what evidence may have been preserved or lost before law enforcement were brought into the investigation.
Williams didn’t immediately respond to a Herald-Leader request for comment Friday.
Gearheart says he was made aware of an incident involving one of the district’s bus drivers in March 2025. Allegations surfaced that a child exposed herself to an adult using a cell phone while on the bus, he said.
He said he reported that directly to the Kentucky State Police and that Williams “expressed disapproval that Plaintiff had contacted law enforcement directly rather than allowing the Board to conduct an internal investigation before contacting outside authorities.”
The school became aware of a second incident involving a Floyd County Schools bus driver in March, and Gearheart said school officials deliberately excluded him from an investigation into the incident, giving the bus driver an opportunity to delete evidence from his phone before police became involved, Gearheart said in his lawsuit.
District staff began working directly with the Prestonsburg Police Department, but Gearheart said he was not initially notified or included in the board’s response.
“The Prestonsburg Police Department became aware of a board of education investigation into an allegation against the school bus driver via our school resource officer,” Prestonsburg Police Chief Ross Shurtleff told the Herald-Leader.
The department was not made aware of the March 2025 incident involving a Floyd County Schools bus driver and was not directly involved in that investigation, he said.
A team of local and federal authorities, including Prestonsburg PD arrested three men in a child exploitation and sexual assault sting earlier this week. Andrew Lewis, 40, of Prestonsburg, was employed by the district as a bus driver when police said he created or shared child sexual abuse material and abused children under his care.
In his complaint Thursday, Gearheart said he received a grand jury subpoena to testify May 7 and that the district attempted to contact him “regarding ending his employment” the next day. On the day of the proceedings, he said he sought medical treatment for hypertension, a condition the district was already aware he had.
Yet, Gearheart claims he was told he would be removed from work for two weeks. On May 14, a day after the scheduled grand jury proceedings, Williams told him his position “was being eliminated and that his services would no longer be needed,” his complaint reads. “Plaintiff was not offered another position with the Board.”
“Plaintiff alleges that the stated elimination of his position was a pretext for retaliation and that the true reasons for the Board’s actions included Plaintiff’s protected reports, communications concerning student safety, cooperation with law enforcement, anticipated grand jury testimony, and medical leave,” the complaint states.
Kentucky law generally protects public employees from retaliation when they report suspected violations of law, waste, fraud, abuse of authority or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety in good faith. Under KRS 61.102, a public employer cannot use its authority to discourage, deter or discriminate against an employee for making such a disclosure to law enforcement or other appropriate authorities.
The law also allows an employee who alleges retaliation to bring a civil action seeking relief. KRS 61.103 establishes standards for such claims, including whether the employee’s disclosure was a contributing factor in the employer’s adverse action. The protections are not unlimited: the statute does not protect disclosures an employee knows are false or makes with reckless disregard for their truth or falsity.
Gearheart said he believes his termination was retaliation in violation of Kentucky’s whistleblower protections and his duties under the law to report child abuse. He also claims he was discriminated against because of a preexisting medical conditions. His actions, he said, were protected under a law against retaliation for cooperating with law enforcement and grand jury proceedings.
Reporter Valarie Honeycutt Spears contributed to this story.