The disappearance of high school football coach Travis Turner is wreaking havoc on his rural Virginia community.
For the first time since Turner, 46, went missing on November 20, the Wise County School Board met on Monday, December 8.
The meeting was described as “tense” by WCYB-News 5, during which public comment was removed from the agenda.
“We just decided that tonight we just wouldn’t have open expression,” school board chair Larry Greear said.
Search for Missing High School Football Coach Facing Grim Reality: Detective
News 5 spoke to parents who said they were “aggravated and concerned about what they say is a lack of communication from the school board.”
“Our main focus is the kids, we want to keep them as normal as possible,” Greear said. “We have resources, we have counseling services available in addition to what they ordinarily have at that particular site.”
Turner had been a football coach at Union High School in Stone Gap, Virginia since 2011, where he was also a physical education teacher.
Greear said public comment will be reinstated at the next meeting, which is scheduled for January 12.
Days after Turner went missing, he was charged with five counts of child pornography and five counts of using a computer to solicit a minor.
Wise County Schools previously noted an unnamed staff member had been placed on “administrative leave with pay” pending an open investigation.
Following the charges against Turner, Wise County said the unnamed staff member remained on leave and “is not permitted on school property or to have contact with students.”
“The division will continue to cooperate with law enforcement as this process moves forward,” Wise County Schools said in a statement on November 25. “Because this is an active legal matter involving personnel, the division cannot comment further.”
Turner was last seen by members of his family walking into the wooded area near his home while carrying a firearm.
Extensive searches involving drones, a helicopter and K-9 units have been unsuccessful thus far.
The United States Marshals Service joined the search on December 1, the same day the agency offered a $5,000 reward for information about Turner’s whereabouts.
In a statement via the Turner family attorney given to Us Weekly on Wednesday, December 3, Travis’ wife, Leslie Caudill Turner, pleaded for the football coach to turn himself in.
Missing High School Football Coach’s Home Has Been Searched ‘Multiple Times’
“If Travis has the ability and is able to respond to his family’s wishes; your wife and children are in distress,” the statement read. “Leslie pleads for you to come home and face the allegations by defending yourself in a court of law. Don’t leave your family to fight this battle without you. They love and miss you. They want you to know they are your support.”
Travis and Leslie, who have been married since 2001, share three children: sons Bailey, 25, and Grayden, 21, and daughter Brynlee, 11.
Bailey is a physical education teacher at Union High School and a member of the football coaching staff.
This isn’t the first time a scandal has rocked Union High School. In 2023, former high school teacher Timothy Lee Meador was indicted on three felony charges and pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent liberties with a child. Meador, now 28, served 15 months in prison and was banned from the school.
