$3 Million Settlement After Rowan County School Officials Ignored Eight Abuse Reports

Andrew Zaheri worked as a health and physical education teacher and coached girls soccer and boys basketball at Rowan County Senior High School. Between 2021 and 2023, he groomed and then repeatedly sexually abused a female student who had been on one of his teams since she was a freshman. The abuse continued for years.

School administrators received at least eight separate reports of concerning conduct between September and December 2022. Former principal Jordan Mann and former superintendent John Maxey were named as defendants in the lawsuit filed by Minner Vines Injury Lawyers in May 2023. The firm alleged that both officials had been put on notice and took no meaningful action to protect the student. Zaheri was ultimately removed only after an anonymous tip reached the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability in February 2023.

In 2024, Zaheri pleaded guilty to federal child pornography charges and, in Rowan Circuit Court, to multiple counts of rape and sodomy. A federal court sentenced him to 22 years in prison. He is now incarcerated at a federal prison in Michigan.

Jonathan Fannin and Matthew Minner of Minner Vines Injury Lawyers represented the survivor, identified in court records as Jane Doe. The lawsuit named the Rowan County Board of Education, Mann, Maxey, and Zaheri as defendants. The board reached a $3 million settlement with the plaintiff as the case approached trial in February 2026.

The settlement is believed to be the largest in Kentucky history for sexual abuse of a single victim within a school system. As part of the resolution, Rowan County Schools agreed to require annual training for teachers and staff on employee responsibilities for reporting abuse. Jon Hollan also served as co-counsel for the plaintiff.