The Wise County School Board in Virginia was put on blast earlier this week in its first session open to public comment since the disappearance of high school football coach Travis Turner.
Turner, who has not been seen since Nov. 20, 2025, has been charged with five counts of possession of child pornography and five counts of using a computer to solicit a minor.
Parents and concerned citizens stepped up to criticize the board for their actions, with one community member reading a statement from an alleged victim of Turner.
What the school board was told
“I am a victim of exploitation by a teacher in this county. Thankfully, under a different administrator my situation was handled promptly and professionally by immediately notifying the appropriate authorities,” read Stephen Murray, a resident of Wise County, according to the Times-News.
The statement from the unnamed alleged victim also said that the young girl felt embarrassment over the situation.
“I did not feel like a victim. I felt like I was the problem,” Murray read.
“I felt like I had embarrassed the school, damaged the reputation of the coaching staff and disrupted something I was supposed to protect instead of myself.”
A man claiming to be the grandfather of the alleged victim also spoke at the meeting, saying he was “proud” of her for coming forward.
“I’m extremely proud of my granddaughter. What she did probably saved some other children. I suppose there’s a reason for everything, as God says in due time,” the grandfather said, according to WCYB.
Several other teachers charged
Murray also listed three other county school teachers who have been charged with sexual misconduct in recent years.
“It’s shocking to me, honestly,” Murray said. “I’ve lived here for going on seven years and I’m blown away that since 2020, there’s been five cases of (inappropriate relationships) reported and charged. I really couldn’t tell you other than it’s just a culture of we sweep things under the rug and hopefully we just bury things and no one talks about it.”
“This is just the cases that have been reported and charged,” Murray added. “When there is this much abuse, it’s not just a few bad apples. It is a culture. The fish rots from the head down.”
The board declined to comment at the meeting.
Where is Travis Turner?
Turner, the head coach of Union High School’s undefeated football team in Big Stone Gap, has not been seen since Nov. 20 and officially has been listed as a missing person.
In the initial police statement, officers were said to be en route to Turner’s residence on as part of the “early stages of an investigation.”
The 46-year-old married father of two was last seen leaving his home with a gun and entering a heavily wooded area.
“The last known contact the family had with Travis occurred on or about Thursday, Nov. 20, after he left his residence to walk in the woods with a firearm,” Adrian Collins, the family’s lawyer, said in a statement obtained by WJLA.
“He is believed to have entered a heavily wooded and mountainous area. At which point, no warrants had been issued for his arrest.”
Despite extensive manhunts involving K-9 units and drones, Turner has yet to be found and authorities have provided few substantive updates since.
Turner, who won three state championships as a player from 1994-97, has served as the head coach at Union since 2011 and twice has been named the Southwest Virginia Coach of the Year.