No institution should fail those it is charged with protecting.
ICKY Schools was founded after firsthand experiences revealed significant gaps in how educator misconduct is recognized, investigated, and addressed. What began as individual advocacy has grown into a broader effort to strengthen the systems responsible for protecting students.
Today, we work alongside survivors, families, policymakers, educators, and partner organizations to advance practical reforms that improve prevention, accountability, transparency, and public trust.
Building Safer Schools Through Accountability, Transparency and Systemic reform.
ICKY Schools is a Kentucky-based student safety initiative working to strengthen the laws, policies, and institutions responsible for protecting students from educator misconduct and grooming.
Current Initiatives
While our efforts our continually evolving, our focus remains on institutional accountability, increasing awareness and positioning survivors as partners in improving systems.
Institutional Accountablity
Holding systems acccountable when they fail to protect students.
Advocating for legislative and policy reforms that strengthen accountability for institutions that ignore, conceal, or inadequately respond to reports of educator misconduct. Our work supports greater transparency, stronger investigative practices, and meaningful consequences when systemic failures enable abuse.
Survivors as Stakeholders
Recognizing lived experience as a form of expertise.
Advocating for survivors and families to be recognized as essential stakeholders in the development of legislation, professional standards, institutional policies, and investigative practices. We believe lived experience offers a unique form of expertise that helps identify systemic gaps, reveal recurring patterns, and inform more effective solutions.
Education & Prevention
Empowering communities to recognize warning signs earlier.
Developing educational resources that improve understanding of grooming behaviors, professional boundaries, reporting obligations, and institutional responses.
Educator Code of Ethics Reform
Recognizing grooming as educator misconduct.
Working with the Education Professional Standards Board to incorporate grooming behavior into Kentucky's Educator Code of Ethics, creating clearer professional standards and earlier opportunities for intervention.
Alleged Victim Rights & Expectations
Promoting transparency and meaningful engagement throughout administrative investigations.
Advocating for clear expectations, timely communication, and defined opportunities for participation so alleged victims understand the investigative process and are treated with fairness, dignity, and respect.
Research & Data
Identifying systemic trends.
Building a framework to collect qualitative data that helps identify common experiences, policy gaps, and opportunities for reform across Kentucky and beyond.
What is Institutional Complicity?
Institutional complicity refers to the ways an organization, system, or authority structure becomes involved in harm—not necessarily by direct action, but through inaction, protection, normalization, or structural failure.
Silence or inaction
Ignoring complaints, minimizing reports, or delaying response despite warning signs.Procedural shielding
Hiding behind policies, technicalities, NDAs, or jurisdictional loopholes rather than addressing the underlying harm.Misplaced loyalty
Protecting reputation, senior staff, donors, or authority figures over the well-being of vulnerable people.
Retaliation or misdirection
Punishing, discrediting, or isolating the person who raises concerns instead of investigating the behavior itself.Normalization of misconduct
Treating concerning behavior as “misunderstandings,” “boundary issues,” or “how things have always been.”Failure to educate or define
Not clearly defining prohibited conduct (e.g., grooming), failing to train staff, or leaving ambiguity that allows harm to flourish.
We’d love to hear from you.
We believe community engagement lies at the core of our success. We look forward to hearing your thoughts, ideas and concerns regarding our movement, and we’d love for you to get involved.