Seventeen third-grade students at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School were physically searched after $5 was allegedly stolen from the teacher's desk, the Hopkinsville New Era reported.

"They are sweeping this under the carpet. They want MLK to be known as a model school," parent Heather Crosslin said.

School principal Sarah Newman plans to give written reprimands to teacher Gwendolyn Parker, substitute teacher Patricia Dawson, student teacher Cassandra Fann and kindergarten aide Chris Dudley for the Feb. 15 incident, school district spokesman Regan Huneycutt said.

No further disciplinary action has been planned, the report said.

The report said parents received a letter from Newman regarding the incident, but some felt it was unsatisfactory, lacked disciplinary plans and did not give reasonable cause for what happened.