Teacher hired despite inappropriate student relationship at Everett school

EVERETT — In April 2024, the Mill Creek Police Department launched an investigation into Kevin Kukla, an AP physics teacher at Everett’s Henry M. Jackson High School.

A custodian had found 47-year-old Kukla receiving a back massage from a student in his locked classroom, according to the police report. Although the teacher and student, then 18, denied they were romantically involved, text messages between the two spanning years reference kissing, loving and missing each other, and being afraid someone saw them lying in the back of the teacher’s car.

The police investigation lasted less than two weeks. The detective said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove a physical relationship between the two. Kukla resigned from his position in June 2024 amid the school district’s third-party investigation, which he refused to participate in.

Later that year, Kukla found another job as an adjunct instructor at Shoreline Community College, just north of Seattle.

https://www.heraldnet.com/2026/05/02/teacher-hired-despite-inappropriate-student-relationship/