Two Oregon high school teachers charged on Tuesday with sexually abusing students had been reported as early as 2019 to district officials, who failed to notify the authorities, according to the police.
The revelations have prompted online petitions seeking the resignations of school leaders as well as demonstrations at St. Helens School District by parents, students and community members.
On Thursday, the principal at St. Helens High School, Katy Wagner, was placed on administrative leave and the school board chairman, Ryan Scholl, resigned, according to the district’s Facebook page. A day later, the district superintendent, Scot Stockwell, was placed on leave, the district said.
The teachers, Eric Stearns, 46, a teacher at the high school, and Mark Collins, 64, who recently retired from the school, were each charged with several counts of sexual abuse, the St. Helens Police Department said.
Joseph Hogue, the acting police chief, said that investigators had identified nine female victims between Mr. Stearns and Mr. Collins from 2019-23. The investigation is continuing and detectives are still fielding calls, he said.
A lawyer for Mr. Stearns, Jennifer L. Myrick, on Sunday night disputed the charges.
She said the grand jurors investigating the charges conflated the investigations of Mr. Collins and Mr. Stearns.
“This is not only prejudicial, but unconstitutional,” she said. “As a result, Mr. Stearns will not only be litigating his criminal matter, but intends to file a civil case.” She also said “haphazard law enforcement work has been done” that has caused “immense trauma within the community unlikely to be undone.”
It was not immediately clear if Mr. Collins had a lawyer.
The investigation started after Doug Weaver, 36, an artist and teacher in St. Louis who graduated from St. Helens High School, aired his concerns about predatory staff members at the school during his time there in a TikTok video on Sept. 6.
Shortly after posting his video, current and former students came forward accusing Mr. Stearns and Mr. Collins of abuse, Mr. Weaver said. He filed a tip with Oregon law enforcement, and investigators contacted him to learn more about those reaching out to him.
“I think that so many people in that community grew up there and they know that these problems exist,” Mr. Weaver said. “But it’s hard to be the first person that speaks out.”
Chief Hogue said that investigators discovered that district officials had previously received reports of abuse by Mr. Stearns and Mr. Collins, some going back as far as 2019. The school did not report the teachers to the police, which they were legally obligated to do, he said.
Representatives for the school district did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday. St. Helens High School has 960 enrolled students. St. Helens is a city about 30 miles north of Portland.
Mr. Weaver shared with The New York Times a screenshot of a Sept. 14 email addressed to the high school community from Ms. Wagner in which she said she had become aware of a video on TikTok.
“I generally don’t respond to social media posts, but I feel compelled to with the concerns the video raised,” she said.
“We always want our children to feel that they can trust the adults in the building who are responsible for educating them,” her email said. “If they cannot, we need our community to engage in productive conversations with our school administration and make timely reports so that appropriate action can be taken and issues can be resolved quickly.”
St. Helens High School staff members posted a letter to the community on Friday that said they were “meeting, listening, and asking so many questions” to find a way forward “in the wake of a crisis that should never happen to any school.”
The school district announced that St. Helens High School would be closed for students on Monday.
“Staff will be preparing for the return of students on campus and making the necessary arrangements for a safe return to school,” the district said on Facebook.
In 2019, another teacher at St. Helens High School, Kyle Wroblewski, pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual abuse. The victim sued the school district, which agreed to pay $3.5 million, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported in March.
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