Founder of ICKY Schools · Survivor Advocate · Student Safety & Policy Reform
“This work began with my own story, but it has never been about one person, one educator, or one school district. It's about what our experiences can teach us, and what we choose to do with that knowledge.”
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Advocacy & Leadership
Laura Wills-Coppelman is the founder of ICKY Schools and a survivor advocate focused on student safety, educator misconduct prevention, institutional accountability, and survivor-informed systems reform.
Her work includes:
Legislative Advocacy — Working with Kentucky lawmakers and advocacy partners to advance student-safety legislation, including Kentucky’s criminalization of grooming and new protections limiting the use of nondisclosure agreements in cases involving educator misconduct and students.
Policy & Professional Standards — Advocating before the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board for stronger educator ethics standards and greater transparency and engagement for alleged victims in administrative proceedings.
Survivor-Informed Reform — Bringing survivor and family perspectives into policy conversations and advancing the principle that lived experience is a meaningful form of expertise.
Coalition Building — Connecting survivors, families, educators, attorneys, advocates, researchers, policymakers, and community members around shared opportunities for reform.
Public Education & Media — Speaking publicly and working with journalists to increase understanding of grooming, educator misconduct, institutional response, and prevention.
Research & Systems Analysis — Documenting recurring experiences and systemic gaps to identify opportunities for policy and institutional reform.
Areas of focus: Educator grooming and misconduct · Student safety policy · Institutional accountability · Survivor-informed reform · Administrative investigations · Prevention