A former Murray High School teacher was arrested Wednesday following a seven-year-long investigation by the Kentucky State Police into allegations of inappropriate relationships with students.
Jason Shelby is facing charges of third-degree rape and first-degree sexual abuse after a woman told KSP detectives that Shelby was involved in a sexual relationship with her in 2008 and 2009, when she was 15 and 16. He was lodged in the Calloway County Jail following his arrest.
KSP officials said the department’s investigation into the former teacher started in 2018, after it received a report from the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board that included allegations of inappropriate relationships Shelby had with a then-current student and a former student. In a release, KSP said allegations of misconduct against Shelby date back to 2005.
However, the state police department said it did not have enough evidence to get a warrant for Shelby’s arrest until last month, when a former student reported being in a sexual relationship with Shelby that started in 2008.
Shelby resigned from his position at Murray High School in 2018 after KSP began its investigation into the allegations it received from the education standards board. At that time, a Murray High School alumna came forward accusing the former teacher of “predatory sexual grooming” that dated back to when she was a student in 2005.
She also claimed that the school district, including then-superintendent – and now Murray mayor – Bob Rogers, failed to take allegations of Shelby’s misconduct seriously when she and others brought it to their attention in 2013.
Shelby agreed to voluntarily surrender his Kentucky teaching certificate in 2019.
