The schoolgirl allegedly abused by Virginia football coach Travis Turner broke her silence for the first time since he vanished into the Appalachian woods last year โ telling how she initially blamed herself for the ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ in a heartbreaking statement.
โI did not feel like a victim,โ said a statement from the girl read on her behalf at the Wise County School Board meeting Monday, the TimesNews reported.
โI felt like I was the problem. 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,โ the statement added.
Travis Turner has been missing since November.Facebook/Leslie Turner
It was read by a Wise County resident, Stephen Murray, who claimed he brought it on her behalf โ and also listed off three other county school teachers who have been charged with ๐๐๐๐๐๐ misconduct in recent years.
โThis is just the cases that have been reported and charged,โ Murray said, joining a chorus of irate residents who lambasted the board. โWhen there is this much ๐ช๐ซ๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ, itโs not just a few bad apples. It is a culture. The fish rots from the head down.โ
The meeting was the Wise County School Boardโs first allowing public comments since Travis Turner vanished in November as police were on the way to question him over child ๐๐๐๐ and exploitation accusations.
Turner โ a 46-year-old father and pillar of the Big Stone Gap community where he coached boys football at Union High School โ hasnโt been seen since he disappeared, despite extensive manhunts combing the rugged local terrain.
The schoolgirl (not pictured) allegedly abused by Virginia football coach Travis Turner broke her silence for the first time since he vanished into the Appalachian woods last year.
He was last seen with a gun walking in the woods behind his house on Nov. 20 โ with police arriving at his home hours later to question him as part of a child ๐๐๐ crimes investigation. Turner was officially charged with child pornography charges and five counts of soliciting a minor days after he vanished.
Authorities have provided few substantive updates since.
A man claiming to be the grandfather of his alleged victim also spoke at the Wise County School Board meeting, telling how he was โproudโ of her for coming forward and stopping other kids from being abused with her courage.
โIโm extremely proud of my granddaughter. What she did probably saved some other children. I suppose thereโs a reason for everything, as God says in due time,โ the grandfather said, according to WCYB.
The victim said she initially blamed herself for the ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ in a heartbreaking statement.Facebook/Leslie Turner
Murray also named each Wise County teacher charged with ๐๐๐ crimes in just the last five years.
They were Dalton Bates, a band director at Central High hit in 2020 with child ๐๐๐๐ charges; Union High teacher and coach Timothy Lee Meador, who pleaded guilty to child solicitation and indecent liberties charges in 2023; and Tyler J. Tibbs, a teacher at Coeburn Middle School charged in August with taking indecent liberties with a child.
โHow is this ๐ช๐ซ๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ allowed to continue?โ Murray told the board.
โFrom where Iโm standing, it seems the people you are trying to protect are not the kids but itโs the reputations of the administrators, and the school board has been complicit in the ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ช๐ซ๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ,โ he added.
The board declined to comment at the meeting.