Police won’t charge teacher

An Arbor View High School teacher and coach will not be charged with sexually abusing a former student when he worked in Kentucky almost three decades ago, Lexington police said Friday.

Regardless of the conclusion Kentucky police have come to, Richard Kazee, 55, is on paid leave and being investigated by the Clark County School District in connection with allegations stemming from when he worked in a school system in Lexington in the late 1970s through the early 1990s.

It's not clear whether Kazee will keep his job.

Kazee was named in a $3.7 million civil lawsuit won by his former student, Carol Lynne Maner, in July. Maner claimed that the school board in Kentucky ignored her allegations of abuse against Kazee and other teachers.

Sgt. Jesse Harris with the Lexington Police Department said Kazee will not be charged because the allegations against him were when Maner was 16.

"In Kentucky, the age of consent is 16," he said.

"However, that doesn't dismiss the fact that he was a schoolteacher and she was still a student at the time. It in no way implies that this wasn't inappropriate."

Harris said two of Maner's former teachers have been charged with rape and sodomy.

Harris said that the allegations against Kazee arose between 1978 and 1979.

Kazee, reached by phone Friday, said he's never been contacted by the Lexington Police during their investigation of him.

"I really don't know much about it," Kazee said. He added that the investigation by the Clark County School District is a confidential matter.

"That's between me and the district at this point."

Kazee taught social studies and coached the boys varsity soccer team at Arbor View. He was hired in 1993.

Darrin Puana, Clark County School District's assistant director in the employee management relations office, said the district is still investigating the allegations against Kazee. The District placed Kazee on paid leave Aug. 24. Classes began Monday.

"We're still pursuing allegations administratively," Puana said. He said the district takes all allegations against teachers seriously, regardless of how long ago they date back.

"For our purposes, we would hope the public would come forward with information or concerns with our employees regardless of whether it was criminal or not. Regardless if it was 30 years ago or yesterday."

But the allegations of sexual abuse against Kazee were not his only problems when he worked in Kentucky. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported in July that Kazee was convicted of a misdemeanor sex solicitation charge and was suspended from teaching in the Lexington district in 1991. He was also suspended a second time in 1991 for drinking beer on campus, the story said.

John Jasonek, executive director of the Clark County Education Association teachers union, said the district has an obligation to complete its investigation of Kazee quickly.

"If there are no criminal charges, they ought to be closing the book on this," he said.