In May, Paducah lost two beloved members of its community: Carrie Downing “CD” Bell Adams McCord, 56, and Kacy Collins York, 33. Both taught special education at McCracken County High School, and both impacted countless lives as teachers, advocates, and mothers. They worked hard and loved hard, and many will miss them dearly
We asked three of McCord and York’s former co-workers in the McCracken County High School special education department to recount memories of these incredible women.
Remembering CD McCord
McCord taught children with learning and behavioral disorders for several years, impacting students in Crittenden County, McCracken County, and Paducah Public school districts. Kelsy Stone describes her as an adventurous spirit and says McCord helped shape her as an educator and made her laugh.
“She was just this very special human,” Stone remembers. “She just didn’t make you feel like you were inadequate ever. She always built you up and wanted to see you succeed. She was always on your side, but at the same time, she would, very lovingly, be honest with you … and constructive with any kind of criticism.”
Stone also says McCord worked with many children who required extra care and understanding. She was well-equipped to give them the special attention they needed and lived by the motto, “Love first. Teach second.”
“She was just very transformative with kids,” Stone says. “She would take some of the kids who were just the most, what you would call ‘difficult’—kids who don’t love themselves, kids who don’t even like themselves—and she would plant them, and they would blossom into these beautiful creatures.”
McCord, Stone remembers, loved her students at their best—but she loved them even harder at their worst. To Lindsey Hansen, this was one of her most valuable qualities.
“She was passionate,” Hansen says. “She was loving. She did not believe that there was any such thing as a broken person. She believed that everyone deserved love. Everyone had the ability and the capability to better themselves, and she was a friend to everyone.”
She says McCord worked so hard to show her students love that she would sometimes take elaborate steps to make them smile. One year, she spent a couple of weeks gathering clothing for a teen who particularly needed encouragement and support. Then, she stashed those items with teachers throughout McCracken County High School.
“On this girl’s birthday, she got to spend the last two hours of the school day … going on a scavenger hunt throughout the high school, collecting all of these clothes,” Hansen remembers. “And then, she was able to keep them all. So, for her birthday, she got an entirely new wardrobe from CD and was able to do it through this fun scavenger hunt.”
Both McCord’s co-workers and students grieve the loss of that unique combination of love and fun.
“It’s hard to see someone, who I always considered to be like sunshine, just be gone,” Stone says.
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We all want to know what our purpose on this planet is, and my mom never had a doubt that teaching was hers. It just came naturally. There was definitely no obstacle too great in the classroom for my mother. A quote she liked (which I now have printed on her favorite coffee tumbler) was “Teaching. It is like breathing. Connecting with kids happens because it is my strength. Connecting with kids happens because it is my purpose. Connecting with kids is where my performance of excellence soars. Connecting with kids is who I am. I want to help create the future. This is my path. YOU hold the key to the gate.” I think the world will continue to learn from my mother for a very long time. I know I still have plenty of lessons left.
– J.R. Adams, son of CD McCord
Remembering Kacy York
Kacy York taught students with moderate-to-severe disabilities for eight years, seven of which she spent at McCracken County High School. She even earned the distinction of Outstanding Autism Advocate in 2016 from the group Families on the Spectrum. Her co-workers describe her as a happy person with a bubbly personality who loved her friends and students and adored her husband and young daughter.
York’s teaching partner, Chris Gregory, says she spent her days taking care of everyone around her.
“She was going to make sure things got done,” he says. “She was very loving and caring toward every student she had, whether that be her students with special needs or even her peer tutors, who are kids who help us in our classrooms.”
He says York went above and beyond her job description to teach and advocate for her students. If they needed a specific service, she made sure they got it, even if she had to spend hours on the phone with a government agency. If they needed encouragement, she arranged a party with the “peer tutors.”
The high school’s peer tutoring program gave students with higher functioning abilities the opportunity to assist in the multiple disabilities unit. Every Christmas, York organized a holiday event in which the peer tutors drew names and bought presents for their classmates with special needs.
“We would have Santa come in and deliver those gifts to our kids,” Gregory remembers. “One of my favorite times of the year was when we would get together in the auditorium of the high school and watch Santa deliver those gifts. … She just always made that seem so special.”
That party wasn’t the only event York helmed. Lindsey Hansen says she also helped her students go to prom and worked with businesses to get dresses and tuxes donated for them. Then, she organized a prom night dinner for these teens and their dates, who were often peer tutors.
“She invested her time,” Hansen says. “She invested her heart and her soul. Kacy worked endlessly to make sure that her students were not only involved in extracurricular activities but that they had friends and people who loved them.”
York’s true superpower, however, was her knowledge of the Medicaid waiver system. According to Gregory and Hansen, she researched waivers tirelessly so she could help her students get much-needed resources and live the best possible lives post-graduation.
“Kacy, in her mind, thought, ‘Well, if I’m not sending them to college, then I’m not sending them into the world with nothing,’ Hansen says. “She was determined that no child would graduate from her classroom without having support in place.”
Now that York has passed away, her co-workers, students, and family are feeling the absence of her love, encouragement, and fighting spirit.
“We just really worked well together, and it’s tough to think that I don’t get to have that anymore,” Gregory says. “She was definitely one of a kind, that’s for sure.”
People across Paducah feel the same about both women. Shortly after they died, community members started promoting the social media hashtags #carelikekacy and #lovelikecd, demonstrating the strong legacy that these women had left behind.
“They were focused on what they believed the truth to be, which is that all people deserve love,” Hansen says. “Everyone deserves a chance. Everyone deserves a helping hand and to know that they are not alone.”
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