Fugitive football coach Travis Turner was still being paid by his Virginia high school employer days after he fled from cops seeking to question him over alleged child sex crimes.
The alarming news comes as it becomes clear Turner also taught classes at Union High School in Big Stone Gap, and would have had regular access to the student body.
Turner, 46, was on “paid administrative leave” as of Monday — at least four days after he apparently split town while cops were on the way to question him over accusations he possessed child porn and tried to have sex with a minor.
It’s unclear when his paid leave actually began, but Wise County Public Schools said Monday it was spurred by an “allegation that was reported to the division.”
That means Turner was being paid while the school district was aware allegations of child sex crimes had been made against its star football coach — who had also gone missing in the thick of a police investigation into those same allegations days earlier.
Turner — longtime coach for Union High, and a local celebrity in the football-loving community of Big Stone Gap — seemingly vanished without a trace and authorities have released little information on the investigation or updates on the search.
Even less is known about the charges against him, and in the absence of official information, some in the tight-knit community have begun to whisper that claims of misconduct about Turner have swirled for years.
The alleged sex offender and dad of three wasn’t just a coach spending his days with a small group of football players.
Turner was also a physical education teacher at the school of about 600 students, which requires most of its coaches to also teach.
That means he would have had regular contact with kids from across the student body on a daily basis.
Turner’s family has strongly denied the allegations against him, saying that he is a good family man and that they only want to see him safely back home.
His charges were announced by Virginia State Police late Monday after his paid leave was confirmed. The school district later updated its statement to acknowledge charges against “a staff member who has been on administrative leave.”
But his place at the center of an alarming investigation was public knowledge by Saturday — two days after he’d gone missing and two days after the school confirmed he was on paid leave.
“The individual remains on leave and is not permitted on school property or to have contact with students,” the district reiterated Tuesday, declining to clarify whether he was being paid.
Wise County also declined to provide a timeline of when it knew about the allegations against Turner, the nature of the investigation into him, or his flight.
