KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Knox County Schools said a coach at Hardin Valley Academy was on administrative leave with pay Wednesday, pending an investigation.
The full statement from KCS is available below.
"Tyler Roach, a teacher and coach at HVA, has been placed on administrative leave with pay, pending an investigation. Because this investigation is continuing, we are unable to comment further at this time."
The Knox County Sheriff's Office confirmed that the department does have an active and ongoing criminal investigation involving Roach.
Roach coached baseball at Hardin Valley Academy and collected state, district and region champion accolades during his career.
Specific information about the investigation was not immediately available.
WBIR 10News requested and obtained Roach's personnel file from KCS on Friday. His record showed he was hired in 2015 as a PE teacher at New Hopewell Elementary School before transferring to Hardin Valley Academy in 2019. Roach's records did not contain any disciplinary actions.
The end of the file contained four pages relating to his administrative leave, but none of the pages contained any details as to why KCS had placed him on leave. The letter KCS gave to Roach dated Dec. 6 simply notified him that he was being placed on administrative suspension with pay effective immediately, referring to Knox County Board of Education Policy G-370.
The BOE policy in question details administrative leave. The Director of Schools is allowed to place any employee of the school system on leave or suspend them at any time "when deemed necessary." In order to place an employee on leave without pay for more than 3 days, the superintendent would then have to provide an employee with a written notice of allegations, give them time to respond to the allegations, and allow the employee to give written notice of the suspension. However, those steps are not required in Roach's case because he was suspended with pay.
This story will be updated when more information is available.