The Floyd County Board of Education does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, religion, marital status, sex, or disability in employment, educational programs, or activities as set forth in Title IX & VI, and in Section 504. MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA CONTACT: Henry Webb August 12, 2015 Office - (606) 886-2354 henry.webb@floyd.kyschools.us Today my office has been contacted by several media outlets asking for our response to an allegation made in an article on the Outsports.com website. According to the author, there was an organized and deliberate attempt by school staff to omit an individual student athletes picture from the yearbook because the student athlete had publicly announced that he was gay. A district level administrator was assigned to conduct an inquiry into the allegation and report his findings directly to me. Yes, the individual picture for the student athlete was omitted from the schools basketball section through error. According to the photographer, the student athlete did have his picture taken along with other team members but he requested the digital file be sent to him for approval and editing and she did comply with his request. The file was returned by the student athlete to the photographer but the file that was sent by the photographer to the school did to not contain a photo for this specific student athlete. During the review process at the school which involved several different individuals the omission was not found. As to the assertion there was a deliberate attempt to harass the student athlete by omitting his photograph from the yearbook, that claim is totally false and without merit. The student appears in the yearbook in fifteen separate photos. The photos are both group and individual and one is a Senior Superlative for School Spirit. There are also several photos of the student athlete taken during basketball games. We do acknowledge that none of these images may be as meaningful to the student athlete as his individual basketball picture and we apologize to him and his family for the error. During this research we discovered that a very limited number of omissions occurred in other schools in our district with the 2014-2015 yearbook. To resolve these unintentional errors, I have directed that any pages where omissions occurred be reprinted as inserts. Any individual who purchased a yearbook and wishes a copy of the insert will be able to obtain one from our office. Expect additional information about that in the near future. We teach our students that when you make a mistake that you acknowledge your error, express regret and if possible, correct your actions. We cant expect our children to learn these lessons if we dont model them. FLOYD COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATIONDr. Henry L. Webb, Superintendent 106 North Front Avenue Prestonsburg, Kentucky41653 Telephone (606) 886-2354 Fax (606) 886-8862 www.floyd.kyschools.us Jeff Stumbo, Chair - District 3 Linda C. Gearheart, Vice-Chair - District 1Dr. Chandra Varia, Member - District 2 Rhonda Meade, Member - District 4Sherry Robinson, Member - District 5