HELENA-WEST HELENA, Arkansas — New details are unfolding about a teacher fired from KIPP Delta Schools in Arkansas, showing allegations in his past as a teacher in Memphis.
Helena West-Helena Police say Fleming Ivory took a 17-year-old student across state lines to a casino. Immediately after word got out, his now-former employer, KIPP Delta Collegiate School, fired him after a two-day investigation and since he took the student across state lines, the FBI stepped in to investigate.
But this isn’t the teacher’s first run-in with these types of allegations.
According to his personnel records, Ivory was a teacher for Memphis City and Shelby County Schools.
His troubles started in 2004 when he was a band director at Northside High. He was suspended for three days without pay for collecting money from students without administrative approval, not properly receipting transactions and using unauthorized volunteers for the band.
In 2005, Ivory was asked to not come back to Northside for having alleged inappropriate conduct with two female students.
But that didn’t stop him from teaching. In 2006, Ivory was hired as the band director at Sheffield High, but was once again suspended, this time for selling band equipment and other discrepancies when it came to money.
His teacher career didn’t end there either. In 2006, he got a job at Oakhaven High and then in 2007, he bounced to Evans Elementary school. We learned that much of his moving around was due to not having valid certification.
Years later, in 2013, Ivory headed to Shelby County Schools to work at Craigmont High as a band director.
His time there was short lived. He got in trouble again for taking students on an unsanctioned overnight band field trip to a hotel.
But what ended his career there were allegations that he sent messages to a student, asking her to find him a girlfriend.
Messages obtained by WREG show where he asked the then- 15-year-old “why she doesn’t come to his class” and “maybe she can hook him up.”
Ivory was once again suspended this time with pay on May 8, 2014, but he resigned on May 9.
We reached out to KIPP Delta Collegiate Schools about their knowledge of Ivory’s background when hiring him and the spokesperson told me none of these red flags showed up on his record.
Since Ivory was never prosecuted for any of the allegations, the spokesperson says this could mean the school districts never reported the incidents to the state.
But with an FBI investigation behind him and charges of sexual exploitation lingering over his head, his career in education may be coming to an end.
We reached out to the Tennessee Board of Education to see if any of these incidents were reported to the state. We’re still waiting to hear back.