MONROE CO. — The Bedford Public Schools Superintendent has released a letter to parents clarifying the circumstances behind the recent resignation of a Bedford Senior High School teacher.
Superintendent Carl Shultz confirmed that Spanish teacher Ben Ku resigned on his own Tuesday, October 28th, after the district received a parent complaint that morning.
Ku, who had been with Bedford for two years, was neither fired nor escorted out by police, Shultz clarified, following multiple rumors that had circulated on social media.
Shultz told WTOL 11 that a parent voiced their concern over an Instagram message Ku sent to a student regarding the discipline of another student, in which he allegedly asked the student to delete the conversation history.
In his letter, Shultz said that there were no allegations of sexually inappropriate, dangerous or illegal behavior involving students and that the situation did not pose a student safety risk.
Bedford Public Schools emphasized that staff are prohibited from contacting students through personal social media accounts, and the incident was handled according to district policy.
Administrators met with Ku, who then chose to resign.
A district administrator, not law enforcement, then accompanied him out of the building, a step Schultz said is common practice during employment separations.
According to Shultz, Ku had passed all background checks, had no prior disciplinary record, and had been licensed by the Michigan Department of Education since 2016 to teach Spanish and social studies.
Because the issue did not meet the threshold for a district-wide alert, a notification was first shared only with the students and families in Ku’s classes through the district’s Schoology platform.
Shultz said in his letter, “If these matters were deemed as a threat to students or community safety, a more widespread message would have absolutely been shared.”