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A Mayfield man built relationships with students. Now he’s rebuilding his community.

Derrick Parrott (left) talking with a colleague on the phone at his father's home in Mayfield.
Liam Niemeyer
/
WKMS News
Derrick Parrott (left) talking with a colleague on the phone at his father's home in Mayfield.

Derrick Parrott’s church still stands, spared from the storm. A white cross perched proudly atop the chapel. The park where he used to play as a kid is relatively untouched, too, with only pieces of the park shelter roof scattered across the grass. Nearby, his grandmother’s home stands, though some trees in the backyard lie broken on the ground.

“She did not want to leave. She’d been there all her life,” Parrott said.

Mayfield gave a lot to the now-36-year-old when he was growing up.

He had dreams of playing in the NFL while leading the powerhouse Mayfield High School Cardinals to a 2002 state championship and undefeated season, rushing for more than 1,700 yards that season and earning all-state honors as a defensive back. But when his dreams weren’t realized following college, he came back home.

He coaches basketball and football in the school district. He joined the city council in 2019. And this summer, he started a position with Mayfield Independent Schools working with kids who need help dealing with attendance, academic or behavior issues. He goes out in the community to connect with them sometimes up to four days a week, looking out for 50 to 60 kids.

It’s those kids he thinks about when he sees homes made unrecognizable by the tornado. Driving past rubble, broken trees and smashed cars, he points to a house mangled with debris, the roof and sides gone.

“I had a kid that I have a really good relationship with that live there,” he said. “He played football for me in middle school. He’s a freshman now. He lived in that house.”

The Mayfield home where Parrott said one of his students lived in.
Liam Niemeyer
/
WKMS News
The Mayfield home where Parrott said one of his students lived in.

He said he immediately called players on his basketball team following the storm to check on them, with his team having a tournament in Marshall County the next day. Now several days after the storm, all the kids he oversees as a School-Community Liaison have been accounted for. He said most students are out of town with family, staying in hotels or lodging at state parks. He’s personally been bringing supplies to families staying in Paducah hotels.

But with the toll of the pandemic and financial insecurity some families were already facing, he believes this disaster only compounds the stress.

“You might already have people with trauma, and then you have this disaster. And then after that, they’re going to have to worry about housing on their mind, basic needs, shelter, food, water, clothing,” he said.

Derrick Parrott.
Mayfield Independent Schools
/
Courtesy
Derrick Parrott.

Mayfield is a small community of about 10,000, and a diverse one. U.S. Census data shows about 13% of the city identifies as Black and about 15% as Hispanic or Latino. It also was an impoverished community before the storm. The poverty rate is more than three times the national average at about 34%.

Parrott’s been thinking about how many in Mayfield rent their homes and how some don’t have renters insurance. He’s nervous about how some families in public housing and subsidized housing will move forward, and also wonders about the fact that some families may not have money to stay in hotels in the coming weeks. Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday said more than 1,000 homes across the state were gone.

“Can they be restored, or are some of them damaged to the point where it’s more economically feasible to just shut it down and just start from scratch, you know?” Parrott said.

Riding along with Parrott, it’s also clear how much the community knows and cares about him. People greet him through his car window and embrace him in the street. Volunteers with a Paducah hospital help him and his wife clear a fallen tree from their backyard. He swings by a local church community center, checking in with those manning tables lined with food and baby supplies.

For Parrott, serving his community and students isn’t work. He sees it as rewarding to help the community he grew up in. Once Mayfield leaves the national spotlight in the weeks ahead, he sees community support as critical to processing their shared tragedy, for both parents and children.

Driving down a residential street warped by the tornado, he doesn’t know for sure how the kids he works with will be affected by this.

“It’s hard to say,” he said. “When people go through traumatizing situations like this, it affects them. It affects everybody differently.”

There’s silence in the car as he looks out the window at his town’s reality.

“See all of these houses? I mean…just destroyed.”

The church community center that Parrott visited on Tuesday.
Liam Niemeyer
/
WKMS News
The church community center that Parrott visited on Tuesday.

"Liam Niemeyer is a reporter for the Ohio Valley Resource covering agriculture and infrastructure in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia and also serves Assistant News Director at WKMS. He has reported for public radio stations across the country from Appalachia to Alaska, most recently as a reporter for WOUB Public Media in Athens, Ohio. He is a recent alumnus of Ohio University and enjoys playing tenor saxophone in various jazz groups."
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