By Michael Pineda
A former Ardmore City Schools employee has been charged with felony second degree rape.
Christopher Kennedy entered a plea of not guilty during an initial appearance in Carter County Court Monday afternoon. Special District Judge Carson Brooks set a bond of $75,000 for the former high school baseball coach.
The charge states that between Aug. 19, 2022, and June 1, 2024, Kennedy had sexual intercourse with a female student under the age of 16 with him being a coach who was 31 years old.
The charge is punishable for not less then one year nor more than 15 years.
Ardmore City Schools released a statement regarding Kennedy Monday which stated:
“Ardmore City Schools is aware that a former employee of the school district was charged today following his inappropriate conduct with a former ACS student. After learning of the conduct in March, per school district protocol, ACS administrators took swift action to remove the employee from school property and immediately reported the conduct to local law enforcement, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, and the Oklahoma State Department of Education. ACS continues to cooperate fully with the Ardmore Police Department, the Carter County District Attorney, and state agencies to ensure justice is served in this matter. The safety and wellbeing of students remains the top priority of the school district.”
The Ardmore Police Department received a tip and informed Ardmore City Schools in March while initiating an investigation that led to Monday’s charge.
“These are always investigations that are tough to work,” APD Spokesman Sgt. Matt Dunn said. “They involve public trust and the citizen’s trust. The position he held was a trusted position with children in our community and this investigation involved the violation of that trust.
“These investigations are always difficult, but we feel Detective (Landon) Gary did an outstanding job with the investigation and a thorough investigation was submitted to the district attorney, who chose to file charges in this case.”
Kennedy was placed on leave in March, and his resignation was approved by Superintendent Andy Davis and submitted to the board in June.
“In these cases, with technology involved, sometimes it takes time to get that information back to us and get the data evaluated and looked at to be able to present a full and complete case,” Dunn said. “As technology continues to grow, so does our ability to be able to get the data back and understand the data and present it to the district attorney,”
Dunn said the APD looks forward to presenting its case in court. A preliminary hearing conference was set for
