KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Knox County Schools confirmed Sunday a Hardin Valley Academy coach that was originally placed on paid administrative leave amid a criminal investigation no longer works for the school system.
KCS said in Dec. 2023 Tyler Roach was placed on leave as the Knox County Sheriff's Office conducted an investigation involving him. At the time, neither KCS nor KCSO said what the investigation was about.
On Sunday, KCS said Roach was "no longer with KCS" as of Feb. 6. KCS did not say why Roach was no longer employed with the school system.
Roach coached baseball at Hardin Valley Academy and collected state, district and region champion accolades during his career.
WBIR 10News requested and obtained Roach's personnel file from KCS in December. 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 were not required in Roach's case because he was suspended with pay.