KY High School Teacher of Year reinstated after investigation for breaking up fight, he says
Kentucky’s 2024 High School Teacher of the Year Kumar Rashad said he’s returning to the classroom Friday after being removed three months ago for breaking up a fight.
Jefferson County Schools spokesperson Carolyn Calloway told the Herald-Leader Friday that Rashad ”is returning to the classroom.”
Calloway would not speak to the nature of the investigation, but said, “JCPS has a legal obligation to investigate any and all allegations brought to our attention. All JCPS policies and procedures were followed in this investigation and reassignment.”
Rashad, a mathematics teacher at Breckinridge Metropolitan High School in Louisville, could not immediately be reached for comment. On X Friday morning he shared a link to a WLKY report about his return to the classroom and said, “I got my freedom papers y’all.”
He told WDRB Thursday in an interview he saw two male students attack a female at the school. He said he came to her rescue and removed the boys. He said the boys reported that he removed them too “harshly.”
Rashad said JCPS reassigns too many educators for frivolous reasons.
JCPS officials did not immediately respond to those comments.
Rashad was named the Kentucky Department of Education’s 2024 High School Teacher of the Year in September. He had been temporarily reassigned to a bus compound “pending final personnel decisions” as of Oct. 9, employment records showed.
School fights have been an issue in Fayette County Public Schools recently.
A heavily publicized incident at Henry Clay High School in October, when school police used pepper spray to break up a fight and multiple students were charged, was one of many fighting incidents at Lexington schools since 2022.
A review by the Herald-Leader of reports of fights at Fayette County high schools revealed school resource officers have investigated nearly 90 physical altercations since the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year.
