--- title: Matt Bevin: Kentucky Teacher Protest Caused Kids to Do Drugs description: Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin lashed out at teachers protesting saying the statewide walkout led students to be sexually assaulted and used drugs canonical: https://time.com/5240577/matt-bevin-kentucky-teacher-protest/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-14T19:00:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:04.028Z article:section: Politics og:title: Matt Bevin: Kentucky Teacher Protest Caused Kids to Do Drugs og:description: 'Children were harmed' og:url: https://time.com/5240577/matt-bevin-kentucky-teacher-protest/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0f5117d5eaab85f/69892da822fb85e1bce2556b/kentucky-governor-students-raped-used-drugs-teachers-protest.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Key Speakers At The 2017 International Finance And Infrastructure Cooperation Forum og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Matt Bevin: Kentucky Teacher Protest Caused Kids to Do Drugs twitter:description: 'Children were harmed' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0f5117d5eaab85f/69892da822fb85e1bce2556b/kentucky-governor-students-raped-used-drugs-teachers-protest.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Students Were Sexually Assaulted and Used Drugs Because Teachers Protested, Kentucky Governor Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Kentucky Teachers Walk Out to Protect Their Pensions [Watch (HLS stream): Kentucky Teachers Walk Out to Protect Their Pensions](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qJl63otV.m3u8) (0:48)  _Published 2018-04-03. Thousands of Kentucky teachers filled the streets near the state Capitol in Frankfort on a cold, overcast Monday to rally for education funding._ by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Apr 14, 2018 7:00 PM UTC  Matt Bevin, governor of Kentucky, speaks during the 2017 International Finance and Infrastructure Cooperation Forum in New York, U.S., on Monday, April 24, 2017\. The forum brings together U.S. and Chinese government officials and global business executives from Fortune 500 companies. Matt Bevin, governor of Kentucky, speaks during the 2017 International Finance and Infrastructure Cooperation Forum in New York, U.S., on Monday, April 24, 2017\. The forum brings together U.S. and Chinese government officials and global business executives from Fortune 500 companies. Photo by Misha Friedman—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Apr 14, 2018 7:00 PM UTC [Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin](http://time.com/4099218/republican-matt-bevin-governor-kentucky/) lashed out at teachers protesting to raise state education funding by saying[ the statewide walkout](http://time.com/5222483/kentucky-teachers-pension-strike-matt-bevin/) led students to be sexually assaulted and use drugs. “I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today, a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them,” Bevin told reporters Friday. “I guarantee you somewhere today, a child was physically harmed or ingested poison because they were left alone because a single parent didn’t have any money to take care of them.” Bevin did not provide any proof of increased sexual assault or drug use among teens or explain how the teachers could be responsible, [the Washington _Post_ noted.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/04/14/kentucky-governor-claims-that-children-were-raped-used-drugs-while-teachers-protested/?noredirect=on&utm%5Fterm=.b4b89f5a3a69) “Children were harmed — some physically, some sexually, some were introduced to drugs for the first time — because they were vulnerable and left alone,” Bevin continued. Teachers’ association members mentioned that parents were notified ahead of time and that many parents supported their work to get more resources for students. “The bottom line is that’s one day,” Jefferson County Teachers Association President Brent McKim [told the _Courier Journal_](https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/ky-legislature/2018/04/13/matt-bevin-kentucky-governor-children-sexually-assaulted-teacher-protests/516569002/). “He was cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from kids that would impact every day, and that’s what we were in Frankfort to stop. We were there with the overwhelming support and encouragement of our parents who know that we care about every student in our classes.” Bevin vetoed a two-year spending bill that would provide a nearly half-billion-dollar tax increase, which was later overridden by fellow [Republicans](http://time.com/5237050/chuck-grassley-republicans-protecting-robert-mueller/) in the legislature. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5240577/matt-bevin-kentucky-teacher-protest/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5240577/matt-bevin-kentucky-teacher-protest/"},"headline":"Students Were Sexually Assaulted and Used Drugs Because Teachers Protested, Kentucky Governor Says","datePublished":"2018-04-14T19:00:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:04:04.028Z","description":"'Children were harmed'","url":"https://time.com/5240577/matt-bevin-kentucky-teacher-protest/","keywords":["Education","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0f5117d5eaab85f/69892da822fb85e1bce2556b/kentucky-governor-students-raped-used-drugs-teachers-protest.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Marie Segarra","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0f5117d5eaab85f/69892da822fb85e1bce2556b/kentucky-governor-students-raped-used-drugs-teachers-protest.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Key Speakers At The 2017 International Finance And Infrastructure Cooperation Forum","caption":"Key Speakers At The 2017 International Finance And Infrastructure Cooperation Forum","creditText":"Photo by Misha Friedman—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/education/","name":"Education"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5240577/matt-bevin-kentucky-teacher-protest/","name":"Students Were Sexually Assaulted and Used Drugs Because Teachers Protested, Kentucky Governor Says"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Kentucky Teachers Walk Out to Protect Their Pensions","description":"Thousands of Kentucky teachers filled the streets near the state Capitol in Frankfort on a cold, overcast Monday to rally for education funding.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qJl63otV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-04-03T00:36:02.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qJl63otV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5240577/matt-bevin-kentucky-teacher-protest/","duration":"PT48S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5240577/matt-bevin-kentucky-teacher-protest/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```