Greenup County School District faced new hurdles on Monday, Nov. 17, as parents, students and active community members alike joined together in protest of recent decisions made by the county’s board of education.
Trouble has been brewing in the scenic river-side county since December 2024, when four employees of McKell Elementary School were indicted by a grand jury on first degree criminal abuse charges in relation to a special needs student under the age of 12. Makenzie Rice and Faith Jordan, both of Greenup, Kentucky, and Ashley Trissler and Michael Lyons, both of South Shore, Kentucky, were indicted Dec. 12, 2024, in Greenup County Circuit Court.
Lyons is currently incarcerated after being indicted on separate charges in Carter County, Kentucky, of procuring or promoting use of a minor by electronic means and distributing obscene material to minors. The victim was a 13-year-old girl. According to testimony by an investigating officer, Lyons allegedly sent lewd photos and then begged her not to press charges.
Regarding the case at McKell, all four defendants have entered pleas of not guilty, and their trials have been tentatively set for August 2026. Of the accused, three were terminated, while the fourth, Trissler, accepted another job offer before the allegations were made public.
What happened next only fanned the flames of community ire that would eventually culminate in the recent public protest.
Tracy Frye, founding attorney of Frye, Troxler & Davis, has been representing the parents of the abused children since the inception of the allegations. As part of a civil suit, Frye requested records regarding the student in question, including video footage of the classroom during the time in which the abuse had taken place. In response, Greenup County’s Board of Education refused to release this footage, and on Jan. 9, 2025, formally stated that it had no intention of doing so. On Feb. 6, 2025, the office of the Kentucky attorney general issued a ruling that the school district had violated the state’s Open Records Act, which holds that Kentuckians have the right to access public records.
Instead of responding to the county’s parents, school officials clammed up publicly, supporting each other in silence … and, it turned out, via text messages.
THE TEXT MESSAGES
Superintendent Traysea Moresea and board chair Mary Kay McGinnis-Ruark came under countywide scrutiny when text messages were made public in response to a civil suit filed by district parents, providing insights into the behavior of the school district’s leaders.
The text messages revealed a startling habit shared by Moresea and McGinnis-Ruark of trading gossip and slinging insults about coworkers, parents, students and, perhaps most jarring, individuals with special needs, like the five young students at the heart of the investigation.
One text, in which Moresea stated that visiting her schools felt like “navigating a special Olympics drop off,” proved especially disturbing to members of the community. Moresea then blamed parental drug abuse and COVID-19 restrictions for the number of special needs students in the district.
In response to widely mounting pressure from the public, a board meeting was held on Nov. 12 in which the announcement was made that Moresea would be demoted but not removed from the district. She is expected to remain employed by the district in an as-yet unspecified capacity until the end of her current contract, and her pension, at this point, remains unaffected.
Parents and community members who were present for the announcement of Moresea’s demotion immediately pressed back on the resolution and demanded further action in the name of accountability, transparency and, most importantly, the children of Greenup County.
The resignations of McGinnis-Ruark and fellow board member Lance Warnock, along with the planned resignations of board members Sandy Mosser and Carl Cotton, were announced at a Nov. 21 meeting of the board. Matt Tussey is the sole member of the school board expected to remain. He was named board chair in the Nov. 21 meeting.
THE PROTEST
The people of Greenup County did not sit idly by while school representatives failed to meet their expectations. They dissented in not just one instance, but two simultaneous acts of protest.
Parents kept their children home on Monday, Nov. 12, a strategy that could impact the district’s finances. Average daily attendance (ADA) is a factor in the formula the state department of education uses to allocate Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) funds. A report from the county stated that districtwide attendance for Monday was approximately 70%.
At the end of the school day, the community gathered outside the Greenup County Board of Education offices with signs aplenty, ready to communicate their dismay with the board’s actions, or lack thereof.
Protestors began to trickle in at 4 p.m. Cars quickly filled the small lot and resorted to parking in the grass, while students walked from the nearby high school to show their support. There was rarely a time when passing vehicles on the neighboring busy highway were not honking in support.
Many of those in attendance were Greenup County alumni who claimed long-standing knowledge and first-hand experience of the inner workings of the district and its tendency for favoritism, as well as a lack of accountability and transparency. Others were current students publicly expressing their frustration with the district they attend.
Cheyanne Suttles and Reanna Leisure, currently freshmen at Greenup County High School, expressed their disappointment with the district in rather colorful fashion. The enthusiastic pair of protestors wore clown makeup to draw attention to their messages, stating that they were “very disappointed, shocked and sad” by the events that have transpired in the county.
“No one should be treated that way,” Leisure said. “It’s unprofessional and inappropriate.”
They both agreed that “Traysea needs to be outta here.”
Paityn Smith, a seventh-grader at the Greenup County School of Innovation, said that attending the protest was “not just about us,” but about protecting those more vulnerable than us. Smith said the text messages made her feel “uncomfortable” and “speechless,” especially because she has a cousin who is autistic.
“Traysea needs more repercussions,” Smith said.
Sarah Carter is the mother of an 11-year-old special needs student in the district, Tripp, who is “the coolest kid you’ll ever meet.”
“I’ve been blessed with his teachers, but this is not just about him,” she said. “It’s for all kids.”
Carter, like many parents in attendance, demanded permanent change for the better. She said that apologies from Moresea thus far have felt forced and full of deflection. In response to the text messages sent by Moresea and other district leaders, Carter said, “If that’s the way you behave, we can’t trust you with our kids.”
Carter was joined at the protest by her cousin Nick Fannin, who also is running for one of the newly vacant positions on the school board. He said he wanted to be in attendance to show support for parents and those affected by recent events. Fannin graduated from Greenup County in 2010 and said he has continued to show support for the school district by making donations and simply showing up when it matters.
As he prepares to run for the school board, Fannin said he seeks to set accountability standards with incoming board members and aspires to hold monthly meetings specifically for parents to express their concerns, so they don’t have to protest to feel that their voices have been heard.
“It is my goal to be transparent and clear with the public,” he said.
WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
Fannin also provided some information regarding what the people of Greenup County may expect to happen next.
Resignations must be submitted in writing and approved by the majority of remaining board members. The resignations of McGinnis-Ruark and Warnock have already been accepted, but the resignations of the other two departing board members will be staggered to facilitate the time required to name replacements and maintain a quorum on the board.
Tussey has said that the board cannot take any further action on Moresea, as it relies on the approval of the Kentucky Commissioner of Education.
Constituents may make their positions known to the current commissioner, Robbie Fletcher, who has held the position since 2024, either by email at [email protected] or by phone at (502) 564-2000.
