Outraged Portland school board members on Friday pledged a rigorous outside investigation into how years of sexual misconduct complaints against a Portland Public Schools educator went nowhere.
The Oregonian/OregonLive, in an article published online Thursday, reported the district's botched handling of students' first-person complaints about Mitch Whitehurst.
After reading it, newly elected school board chair Julia Brim-Edwards said she found the district's inaction troubling and pledged to hire an outside firm to investigate.
Other board members expressed anger and mortification. One said the district needs to get better advice from its lawyers on staff and from its outside law firm.
The Oregonian/OregonLive's investigation found the district protected Whitehurst, a 32-year district employee, not children. Whitehurst ultimately left under a cloud and surrendered his license in 2016, but only after a male colleague complained that Whitehurst mistreated him.
Girls and young women reported troubling behavior to school officials and asked that he be stopped, only to be disbelieved and see Whitehurst go unscathed, the news story said.
"It's so hard to read," recently elected board member Scott Bailey said Friday. "I was mortified. It's obvious (Portland Public Schools) has let students down and the public down, and we need to do whatever we can to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Whitehurst's conduct came to the Portland school board's attention last year when district lawyers urged the panel to settle a lawsuit from a male colleague who accused the district of tolerating Whitehurst's unnerving behavoir.
The board agreed to settle on a 4-3 vote, and only after insisting staff scrutinize the case. That directive was ignored.
Board member Mike Rosen said Friday he wants the investigation to take a hard look at the district's legal advice.
Board members got a "convoluted" rundown of the facts when briefed on the lawsuit, he said Friday. Rosen said he felt lawyers pressured board members to settle to avoid more information about the district's mishandling of Whitehurst emerging in a trial.
"I don't want to mention names. I think it is enough to say the counsel that what we got from our attorneys — whether they were from inside the district or outside counsel — it was awful," Rosen said. "It just makes me realize we need better counsel from the inside and the outside."
Stephanie Harper, a lawyer for the district, was Portland Public Schools interim general counsel when the district settled for $250,000. Prominent Portland firm Miller Nash has long been the district's go-to defender. Billing records show the district paid Miller Nash $284,000 to handle the case.
Miller Nash managing partner Kieran Curley did not respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.
Brim-Edwards said she made the decision to commission an outside investigation in consultation with co-vice chairs Julie Esparza Brown and Rita Moore. Neither Esparza Brown nor Moore responded to requests to comment Friday.
Other board members said they hope the investigation will smoke out facts that district employees refused to give The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Harper declined to say who at the district made the call in 2013 to write off eighth-grade girls' firsthand accounts about their gym teacher's wolfish stares and comments about their bodies as "rumors."
Harper has emphasized she didn't make the determination that the girls' statements were rumors. But she won't say who did. And the district declined to released paperwork to show who was responsible or explain the rationale.
Rosen and Bailey both said they want answers.
Rosen said he felt it was "outrageous" that staff members have not provided the name of who decided the girls' accounts were rumors.
"I hope the investigation figures out who it was. I'd love to hear that person's logic. How many woman had to come forward over 32 years before there was a credible complaint that wasn't quote a rumor?" Rosen said. "I think it is embarrassing. I mean who is accountable?"
Rosen added that he was upset staff members hadn't followed up on the board's request to look at this case. He also said he blamed himself and wished he'd made staff follow through on the board's directive.
Current board members Esparza Brown, Amy Kohnstamm and Paul Anthony were on the board when the case was settled. None of them responded to requests for comment Friday.
Anthony, at the time, rebuked the board for its decision to settle and voted no. He argued a trial was needed to get to the truth and that the board was only settling to avoid a risk to its reputation when a risk to children should be top of mind.
Kohnstamm countered by noting that the board could settle the case but still evaluate concerns to make sure the district has a process that safeguards children.
In an April committee meeting, she and other board members asked what lessons had been learned from the Whitehurst case.
"What were the systemic pitfalls that allowed that to not get addressed?" Kohnstamm asked.
No one on staff could say.
After getting nowhere, then-school board chair Tom Koehler said, "I just want to make sure when this comes to the board that there has been a thorough evaluation of lessons learned from that Whitehurst case because we asked for that."
Brim-Edwards has promised this time will be different. She said Thursday that she felt district employees have been allowed to ignore requests for important information. That will change, she said.
Rosen said he noticed a huge increase in the sense of urgency this board has brought to the issue. In July, three new board members joined the seven-member panel.
"I hope the investigation is thorough," Rosen said, "and identifies the chain of command of people involved in the decision-making, so we don't end up in this spot again."
Read The Oregonian/OregonLive's investigation here:
— Bethany Barnes
Got a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.com