SHELBY COUNTY, Ky. (WDRB) — Months after Collins High School teacher and boys basketball coach Chris Gaither was accused of grooming a student for sex, a settlement with Shelby County Public Schools will allow him to resign and receive thousands of dollars in back pay.
Gaither was fired in January after a former student publicly accused him of grooming and inappropriate behavior dating back years.
As part of the settlement, Gaither agreed to keep terms of separation forever confidential. WDRB obtained the document through an open records request.
After Gaither was fired, he appealed his termination, a process that could have led to a formal hearing. Instead, both sides reached a settlement.
Under the agreement, neither Gaither nor the district admits fault. Gaither will resign at the end of June, and that resignation voids his termination.
The district is paying him nearly $38,000 in salary from the time he was terminated in January through the end of June. On top of that, Gaither gets a $5,000 lump-sum payment from the district's insurance carrier.
Gaither also agreed not to apply for another job with Shelby County Public Schools.
The allegations stem largely from a letter written by former student Hayley Murphy Weddle.
In the letter to the Shelby County Board of Education in December 2025, Weddle alleges Gaither groomed her for two years while she was a student at Collins High School.
Weddle said the behavior began in 2012, when she was 17 years old and working as a student manager for the boys basketball team Gaither coached.
She wrote that Gaither frequently pulled her out of class, texted her outside of school and basketball activities and asked questions about her sexual history.
Weddle also alleged that in 2014, while Gaither's wife was on a mission trip and Weddle was babysitting his children, Gaither kissed her. Weddle said that weeks after her graduation, he persuaded her to have sex.
After Weddle publicly shared her allegations, other women spoke before the school board, alleging the misconduct did not begin or end with one student.
"I can no longer stay quiet," Hannah Ross told board members, alleging she was groomed by a different teacher about 25 years ago.
The women accused the district of allowing a culture of inaction to continue.
"Secrecy is what allows abuse to thrive," said Laura Wills Coppelman.
The settlement comes the same year Kentucky lawmakers passed a bill making it illegal to groom a child. People who said they were groomed in Shelby County Public Schools, including Weddle, advocated for that bill.
The founder of Institutional Kentucky, a survivor-led advocacy group focused on grooming and abuse in Kentucky schools, criticized the outcome in a statement. She said she was also groomed in a Shelby County school.
"Outcomes like this often leave important questions about transparency, accountability, and public trust unanswered," the statement said.
The settlement does not determine whether Gaither will keep his teaching license. That decision rests with the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board, which declined to comment on the status of its investigation.
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