Southeast
Kentucky teacher adopts his student and the boy's three siblings: 'Our lives are complete'
As a Kentucky teacher counts the new students who will be entering his classroom this fall, he’s also counting his blessings, which includes the thriving family of six that became his when he adopted a student and his siblings.
“Our lives are complete,” Justin Padgett of Danville, Kentucky, told Fox News Digital.
“We have left it all up to God to put us where we need to be at the right time. I feel fulfilled.”
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The journey began during the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2021.
Padgett, who was teaching fifth grade at Highland Elementary School in Lincoln County, Kentucky, was finally able to teach his students in person during the final nine weeks of school.
A judge makes it official: Kasey Padgett (second from left) and Justin Padgett (far right) officially adopted their children Jayden, Hailey, Alexis and Jase in March 2022. (Kasey Padgett)
One of his students, Jayden, had fallen behind on some of his schoolwork — as many kids did during COVID.
“I was helping tutor him, one-on-one with reading and social studies,” Padgett said.
“We were just trying to help support his academics. That’s when he called me over to his computer one day and just said, ‘I have to be adopted.’”
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The boy had typed the same words on his computer — so Padgett pulled him into the hall to talk.
The fifth grader said that his current foster parents couldn’t adopt him — and his three siblings — and that his birth family had lost their rights.
The Padgett family gets dressed up for Halloween in Waynesburg, Kentucky. (Kasey Padgett)
So he and his siblings had to be adopted, he said — and he hoped it could be done by his teacher.
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“He was nice to me, and he always helps me,” Jayden himself told Fox News Digital.
“He was a really loving person, so I just wanted him to love me and my family.”
Padgett called Kayden’s foster mom — then went home to speak with his wife, Kasey.
“We love telling our story. It’s a blessing to us to be able to share and to see the response that people have toward us.”
“I said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a kiddo in my class that needs to be adopted, and he’s got three siblings,” Padgett said.
“I asked her, ‘What are your thoughts about that? How would you feel about that?’”
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The couple, who married in 2018, had been hoping for a child of their own.
But “that just wasn’t in the cards for us,” Kasey Padgett said.
She desperately wanted to be a mom, but the doctors told her to give it time.
The Padgett family is pictured during a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. (Kasey Padgett)
“I really started praying about it,” Kasey Padgett said.
“I thought, ‘There’s got to be a way,’” she added. “I have a couple of friends and family members who are foster parents, and they kept encouraging us and telling us we would be great foster parents.”
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The couple started classes to prepare them for fostering a child.
They were near the end of their training and waiting for a home study when Jayden made his plea.
“I really started praying about it.”
“That really expedited [things],” Justin Padgett said.
In April 2021, they began the process.
Keeping the 4 siblings together
“The kids were part of a program called Wendy’s Wonderful Kids,” Justin Padgett said of The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a national nonprofit dedicated to finding families for the 108,000-plus children waiting to be adopted from foster care in the U.S.
The foundation played a big role in keeping the four siblings together.
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“We started making connections with their social worker and she kind of vetted us to make sure we knew what we were signing up for. And then we started [the] visits.”
The Padgetts started by taking the kids — Jayden, Hailey, Alexis and Jase — to church, where they served as youth leaders.
“We started picking them up in the church van,” Justin Padgett said, “and they started going to church with us.”
The Padgett family has a lot of travel firsts they’re hoping to cross off their bucket list. Recently, they visited Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. (Kasey Padgett)
The Padgetts did not share with the kids that they might be adopted.
“Life can happen, and, you know, we could back out or something could change in the court system,” said Justin Padgett. “They ended up finding out, but we were already having weekend visits at that point and getting their rooms ready.”
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At the end of July 2021, the kids moved in with their new foster family.
“I really liked it because we didn’t have to get split up and be with someone else,” Alexis, 12, told Fox News Digital.
The Padgetts lived in a small farmhouse when it was just the two of them. So they moved into a three-bedroom house — which they quickly outgrew.
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The family has since moved to Danville, where Justin Padgett now works for the Kentucky School for the Deaf.
The family of six stopped at the Gettysburg National Military Park while visiting Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. (Kasey Padgett)
The adoption became official on March 3, 2022.
“We’re very religious, so we’ve seen them spiritually grow, which has been amazing for us. They’ve grown so much,” said Justin Padgett.
The parents said they hope people will think of teenage kids — not just little ones — when considering adoption.
“At that age, they’ve been through so much trauma — being removed from their home, going through foster care — that they really need special love and attention,” Kasey Padgett said.
“It’s not all sunshine or rainbows, but we persevere through the hard times and we work together.”
“And they are going to need resources for mental health, as well as guidance and assistance getting into college or trade school or wherever they go in life,” she added.
Kasey Padgett said she and her husband are considering trying to have a child naturally, or adopting another child.
“The doors are open for whatever God has for us,” she said.
Justin Padgett and his wife quickly became a family of six. They said they hope their story encourages someone else to consider fostering or adoption. (Kasey Padgett)
The Padgetts said they hope their story encourages someone else to consider fostering or adoption — even a teacher.
“It’s a calling. You are in place of the parent when [the kids are] at school. You’re in charge of keeping them safe, and there are those bonds and connections that form,” said Justin Padgett.
“It’s very easy for a teacher to segue into being in charge of a kid at school and then possibly being able to take them into foster care or adoption.”
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Southeast
Weird South Carolina laws that will surprise you, including the ramification of buying silverware on Sundays
Did you know that it’s illegal to play pinball if you’re under 18 in South Carolina?
This is just one of the Palmetto State’s odd regulations that are still technically a law. Other laws include limitations on dancing, shopping on Sundays and more.
Take a look at a few of South Carolina’s bizarre laws.
One of South Carolina’s strange laws prevents kids from playing pinball. (iStock)
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- No playing pinball if you’re under 18
- No insincere marriage proposals
- Dancing stops at midnight on Saturday
- Silverware, and other items, can’t be bought on Sunday
1. No playing pinball if you’re under 18
If you’re taking a stroll down a South Carolina boardwalk and stumble upon a pinball machine, you must be at least 18 to participate in the popular arcade game.
In South Carolina, it is “unlawful for a minor under the age of eighteen to play a pinball machine,” according to Section 63-19-2430 in the South Carolina’s Children’s Code.
The old law coincides with the invention of the game, when it was considered a form of gambling.
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Although this is still a law in South Carolina, it is not one widely enforced throughout the state.
2. No insincere marriage proposals
In South Carolina, the promise of marriage in an attempt to seduce a woman is strictly prohibited. So much so that there is a law forbidding it.
In South Carolina, don’t promise marriage unless you mean it; it’s the law. (iStock)
You can find this law in South Carolina Code Section 16-15-50. The law applies to males that are over the age of 16 and could lead to jail time if broken.
“A male over the age of sixteen years who by means of deception and promise of marriage seduces an unmarried woman in this State is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined at the discretion of the court or imprisoned not more than one year,” the law states.
3. Dancing stops at midnight on Saturday
If you love to dance the night away, don’t plan on partying too late in South Carolina.
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This holds true for Saturdays at least, with dance venues in the state closed beginning at 12 a.m. Saturday through Sunday.
You can find this law in Title 52 – Amusements and Athletic Contests in South Carolina’s Code of Law.
In South Carolina, it’s against the law for dance venues to be open on Sundays. (iStock)
Section 52-12-10 outlines that it is “unlawful for any person to keep open or admit persons to any public dancing hall owned or operated by him or to allow any person to continue thereat between the hours of twelve o’clock, midnight, Saturday and twelve o’clock, midnight, Sunday, and all such places shall be and remain closed to the public between such hours.”
The punishment for breaking this law is a fine between $10 and $15 for the first offense, with the fine increasing to between $50 and $100 for second time offenders or imprisonment for 30 days.
Additionally, the location of dance halls is also outlined in South Carolina law.
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According to state law, it’s illegal for dance halls to be located within one fourth of a mile of a church or cemetery in the state. This law is laid out in Section 52-13-20.
4. Silverware, and other items, can’t be bought on Sunday
If you find yourself needing a sparkly new silverware set, building supplies or a musical instrument to begin a new hobby on a South Carolina Sunday, you may be out of luck due to a law in the state.
The sale of certain items, including silverware, is illegal on Sunday,
Title 53 in South Carolina’s code highlights regulations specific to Sundays, holidays and other special days.
Under Section 53-1-60, the sale of many items is prohibited on the first day of the week.
In-store transactions are limited on Sundays in South Carolina, with many businesses closed. (iStock)
The selling of “clothing and clothing accessories (except those which qualify as swimwear, novelties, souvenirs, hosiery, or undergarments); housewares, china, glassware, and kitchenware; home, business and office furnishings, and appliances; tools, paints, hardware, building supplies, and lumber; jewelry, silverware, watches, clocks, luggage, musical instruments, recorders, recordings, radios, television sets, phonographs, record players or so-called hi-fi or stereo sets, or equipment; sporting goods (except when sold on premises where sporting events and recreational facilities are permitted); yard or piece goods; automobiles, trucks, and trailers,” is prohibited according to the law.
Connected to this law is one that makes it “unlawful to work on Sunday,” according to Section 53-1-40.
“On the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, it shall be unlawful for any person to engage in worldly work, labor, business of his ordinary calling or the selling or offering to sell, publicly or privately or by telephone, at retail or at wholesale to the consumer any goods, wares or merchandise or to employ others to engage in work, labor, business or selling or offering to sell any goods, wares or merchandise, excepting work of necessity or charity,” according to South Carolina law.
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Southeast
Judge faults Breonna Taylor's boyfriend for shooting death, clears 2 Louisville officers of felony charges
A federal judge cleared two former Louisville police officers of felony charges in connection to Breonna Taylor’s fatal shooting and instead faulted Taylor’s boyfriend for her death.
In an order Thursday, U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson dropped felony “deprivation of rights under the color of law” charges against former Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland first announced federal charges against Jaynes and Meany in August 2022 during a high-profile visit to Louisville. Garland accused Jaynes and Meany, who were not present during the fatal 2020 police raid of Taylor’s apartment, of knowing they had falsified part of the warrant and put the 26-year-old Black woman in a dangerous situation by sending armed officers to her door.
Simpson declared that the actions of Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who fired a shot at police the night of the raid, were the legal cause of her death, not a bad warrant.
The city of Louisville in December 2022 agreed to pay Walker $2 million to settle lawsuits filed in state and federal court while anti-police protests engulfed the nation following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.
When police carrying out a drug warrant broke down Taylor’s door in March 2020, Walker fired a shot that struck an officer, former Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, in the leg. Walker said he believed an intruder was bursting in. Officers returned fire, striking and killing Taylor in her hallway. Simpson concluded that Walker’s “conduct became the proximate, or legal, cause of Taylor’s death.”
In the ruling last week, the judge said “there is no direct link between the warrantless entry and Taylor’s death.”
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“While the indictment alleges that Jaynes and Meany set off a series of events that ended in Taylor’s death, it also alleges that (Walker) disrupted those events when he decided to open fire” on the police, Simpson wrote.
The judge effectively reduced the civil rights violation charges against Jaynes and Meany, which had carried a maximum sentence of life in prison, to misdemeanors.
Kenneth Walker stands in front of a portrait of Breonna Taylor during a protest memorial in Jefferson Square Park on March 13, 2021, in Louisville, Kentucky. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
Simpson declined to dismiss a conspiracy charge against Jaynes and another charge against Meany, who is accused of making false statements to FBI investigators.
“We are very pleased by the court’s ruling,” Meany’s attorney, Brian Butler, told the Louisville Courier Journal.
“This dismissal places the burden on the United States as to how to proceed on the dismissal of this order,” Jaynes’ attorney, Thomas Clay, told the Journal.
“Obviously we are devastated at the moment by the Judge’s ruling with which we disagree and are just trying to process everything,” Taylor’s family said in a statement on Friday, according to WLKY.
“The Assistant United States Attorneys on the case have informed us of their plan to appeal,” the statement added. “The only thing we can do at this point is continue to be patient. The appeal will extend the life of the case but as we’ve always maintained, we will continue to fight until we get full justice for Breonna Taylor.”
The Justice Department said in an email to The Associated Press that it “is reviewing the judge’s decision and assessing next steps.”
Former Police Sgt. Kyle Meany testifies, Feb. 23, 2022, in Louisville. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, Pool)
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A third former officer charged in the federal warrant case, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty in 2022 to a conspiracy charge and is expected to testify against Jaynes and Meany at their trials.
Federal prosecutors alleged Jaynes, who drew up the Taylor warrant, had claimed to Goodlett days before the warrant was served that he had “verified” from a postal inspector that a suspected drug dealer was receiving packages at Taylor’s apartment. But Goodlett knew that was false and told Jaynes the warrant did not yet have enough information connecting Taylor to criminal activity, prosecutors said.
She added a paragraph saying the suspected drug dealer was using Taylor’s apartment as his current address, according to court records. Two months later, when the Taylor shooting was attracting national headlines, Jaynes and Goodlett met in Jaynes’ garage to “get on the same page” before Jaynes talked to investigators about the Taylor warrant, court records said.
A fourth former officer, Brett Hankison, was also charged by federal prosecutors in 2022 with endangering the lives of Taylor, Walker and some of her neighbors when he fired into Taylor’s windows.
A state jury acquitted Hankison on wanton endangerment charges in 2022.
A photo of Breonna Taylor is seen during the 2nd Annual Defend Black Women March in Black Lives Matter Plaza on July 30, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Frontline Action Hub)
A federal trial last year on alleged civil rights violations ended with a hung jury. Hankison is scheduled to be retried on those charges in October.
Clay told the Journal that the Justice Department was waiting for the outcome of Hankison’s October re-trial before proceeding to schedule the trial of Jaynes and Meany.
FBI ballistics determined that former Louisville Detective Myles Cosgrove likely fired the bullet that killed Taylor.
He and Mattingly were not indicted on any charges by a state grand jury in 2020, and a two-year investigation by the FBI also cleared Cosgrove and Mattingly of any criminal wrongdoing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Southeast
Lake Mary walks off Chinese Taipei to win Florida's first-ever Little League World Series championship
The boys from Lake Mary, Florida walked it off against Chinese Taipei in extra innings to win the Little League World Series, 2-1, in thrilling fashion on Sunday night.
A Florida team was 0-8 in LLWS title games all-time, but Lake Mary had been fighting tooth and nail throughout this series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, facing four elimination games just to reach the final against the squad from Taoyuan, Taiwan – a squad that didn’t lose any of the five games they’ve played since hitting the States.
After Lathan Norton finished his 3.2 innings with a scare, as Taoyuan’s Hu Yen-Chun flew out to the warning track in the top of the eighth inning, he went to second base to begin the bottom of the eighth in a 1-1 game.
Southeast Region celebrate after the game against Asia-Pacific Region at Lamade Stadium. (Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports)
The last hitter in Lake Mary’s lineup, Hunter Alexander, came up in a clear bunt scenario, where he was only thinking about moving Norton over to third base.
But Taoyuan, perhaps the team with the best fundamentals in the tournament, didn’t have someone covering first base when Alexander laid down his bunt to the right side.
The ball was thrown away, and Lake Mary celebrated immediately as Norton came around third base for the winning run.
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Southeast Region pitcher Jacob Bibaud (12) reacts with infielder DeMarcos Mieses (25) against Asia-Pacific Region in the first inning at Lamade Stadium. (Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports)
However, despite just winning the whole thing, the Lake Mary squad was seen giving out hugs and pats on the back to their Taoyuan opponents, who were distraught about how everything ended. It was the definition of sportsmanship before it was time to hoist the trophy.
What made this victory for Lake Mary more impressive was the bottom of the sixth inning where they were down 1-0 despite having numerous runners on base throughout the game.
DJ Mieses hit an RBI double and Chase Anderson came flying around the bases to score, forcing extra innings. Mieses’ reaction said it all, as he was firing up his dugout and the crowd.
Lake Mary faced elimination twice in the semifinal on Saturday night against the Southwest Region representatives from Boerne, Texas, but their fourth and final elimination game ended with a 10-7 victory.
Southeast Region celebrate after the game against Asia-Pacific Region at Lamade Stadium. (Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports)
These boys have been resilient, and they were rewarded with this once-in-a-lifetime victory that makes state history in the process.
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