A year ago, the Portland Public Schools Board took a giant step to move this failing district in a different direction.
Led by newly elected Chairwoman Julia Brim-Edwards, the board promised to investigate how former educator Mitch Whitehurst continued working in Portland schools for three decades despite numerous complaints from girls about his sexual harassment and misconduct.
Board members didn't back down, get defensive or blame others. And they delivered, recently sharing results of a deep investigation that laid bare a series of policies and practices that failed students in the past and continue to jeopardize student safety today.
Now it's time to get to work. Change is needed at many levels, from Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero's office down to individual classrooms. However, this can't remain "Portland's problem" if all Oregon students are to benefit from the sound recommendations of the Whitehurst investigators.
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District leaders, already plagued with many other crisis-level issues, need help. And, in another big change for Portland Public Schools, they know it and are asking for it. They need commitment and collaboration from the teacher's union, community members, advocacy groups, private business and local leaders. State Legislators have a role here, too, refining existing laws that have made it easier for predators to move from school to school across the state.
The 322-page investigative report should be required reading for every educator and administrator across Oregon. They're likely to find that the holes in Portland's district policies and practices are familiar. So, too, will be the stories of employees who missed warning signs, explained away troubling behavior or made decisions based not on student well-being, but on convenience, cost and risk of controversy.
This is a chance for all educators to learn and to be more diligent in protecting our children.
Oregon educators should look to Guerrero, who has promised to "concretely" put in place the recommendations to improve training, streamline record-keeping and tighten human resources policies. Guerrero told The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board last week he'll roll out new sexual harassment and boundary training for staff and students this fall.
Guerrero also is close to hiring a Title IX coordinator, a long-empty role that's needed to create a more accountable system for receiving, investigating and tracking sexual misconduct complaints. Time and again, Whitehurst and others avoided scrutiny because of a disjointed system that makes it difficult to see educators' complete history. There's no doubt other districts employ similar procedures and put their students at risk.
Oregon educators should also take note of Guerrero's pledge to stop making it easier for bad apples to find new jobs.
Whitehurst investigators found a slew of past resignation agreements with educators facing questions about inappropriate behavior. Over and again, Portland officials promised to provide only basic employment information when other potential employers called for references. They agreed to remove investigation information from personal files and to seal disciplinary records. These twisted deals prioritized employees' interests over student safety, using tax dollars to help hide bad behavior.
Those are tasks Guerrero has and will continue to manage. But several key points require commitment from the teachers' union, Portland Association of Teachers. We know most teachers work hard, spending much personal time and resources, to help our students succeed. In that spirit, teachers should encourage their union leaders to work with the district to change contract language that has made it difficult to track patterns of abuse.
That change will better protect students. It will also protect the professional standards that the vast majority of teachers achieve.
The last piece of this puzzle must come from Salem. Current laws set standards for how sexual conduct complaints are considered "substantiated." That's important because only substantiated complaints can be shared with districts calling for employment references.
But Whitehurst investigators found the law sets the bar too high. Sexual misconduct is defined as creating an "intimidating, hostile or offensive to the educational environment" that also "unreasonably interferes" with a student's education performance. That's flat ridiculous. That is flat ridiculous.
How in the world is any interference in a student's education because of an educator's sexual misconduct reasonable?
The law was aimed at helping prevent sexual abuse, but the current wording doesn't get anywhere close. Some students may not realize they're being manipulated and victimized. Others may keep up their grades and attendance, meaning the abuse wasn't an "interference" to their education.
Investigators pointed to a better definition used by the Teachers' Standards and Practices Commission. The agency, which administers teaching credentials, uses five clear and logical standards. To lose their license, an educator must only violate one.
Portland Public Schools leaders along with administrators from schools across the state should push state lawmakers to make this reasonable change in the next legislative session. Really, lawmakers who claim to care about education should start this work now.
Unclear laws, bad policy and sheer sloppiness left many Portland students feeling unsafe in the very place where they were supposed to find confidence and support.
Like many community members, the school board and district leaders are heartbroken and angry. They should be. But by coming together, schools and their supporters can fix these problems of our past and keep our children safe in the future.
-- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board
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Editorials reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom. Members of the editorial board are Laura Gunderson, Helen Jung, Mark Katches and John Maher.
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