Oregon teachers union calls for better response to teacher misconduct -- but no new laws

(Yuxing Zheng/The Oregonian)

The Oregon Education Association, in a statement on the first day of a special legislative session, urged lawmakers "not to politicize" how school districts handle sexual abuse.

The message comes against a backdrop of new revelations about how Oregon's largest school district botched an egregious case of educator abuse and politicians' calls to rewrite teacher contracts to better track reports of educator misconduct.

In its statement Monday, the statewide teachers association called for "immediate review" of the way districts respond to complaints of misconduct. But the union said it wants the fixes left to school districts and their teachers.

"School districts and unions should examine any policies that could be hindering investigations of sexual misconduct in a thoughtful, localized manner," Oregon Education Association President John Larson told The Oregonian/OregonLive in an email. "This is too important of an issue to deal with in one fell swoop – one policy change won't fix the problem."

Earlier this month, Portland Public Schools released a searing outside investigation that that attempted to explain how the district allowed educator Mitch Whitehurst to go unchecked, despite repeated allegations of sexual misconduct, over the course of his 32-year career.

The report was done in response to an Oregonian/OregonLive story last fall titled, "Benefit of the Doubt: How Portland Public Schools helped an educator evade allegations of sexual misconduct."

Investigators made several suggestions to improve how Portland Public Schools handles sexual abuse, including changes to the teacher contract and a change to state law to lower the bar for when districts must pass on concerns about an educator.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Knute Buehler seized on the report and called  for Gov. Kate Brown to tackle these issues during this week's special session.

Buehler did not call for a single policy change, but several. He urged Brown to put a time requirement on the state's investigations into bad teachers so that licensing investigations no longer drag out, to create a law that would prohibit teacher contracts from requiring files be purged every time a teacher or their boss moves to a new school, and to lower the bar for when a district is required to notify another district of problem teachers.

The teachers union statement sent out Monday defended policies that require complaints be purged from teacher files.

"We want to work with school districts to consider updating policies that may have unintended consequences," the statement said. "Policies to remove portions of records exist because as in any profession, employees may be the subject of unfair accusations made by a supervisor, colleague or community member. They also impact incidents filed for minor infractions like tardiness, which should not follow an employee for life."

The statement said proven allegations of sexual misconduct should not be purged. But the investigators hired by Portland Public Schools determined a safer practice is to retain a record of complaints that could neither be proven or disproven as well as those that are substantiated in order to avoid missing a pattern of behavior.

Asked by email what to do about records of allegations that fell into that category, Larson said, "Records of concerns about sexual misconduct (or other issues) should be fully investigated by school districts as quickly as possible and not be left to linger by administrators like what happened in Portland Public School District."

Investigators noted poor record-keeping and reluctance from administrators to document problems and use the discipline process in place, possibly because of a desire to not deal with the union, allowed Whitehurst to repeatedly convince people he'd had a one-time lapse.

"We are calling for school districts to immediately review how they handle any complaints about sexual abuse, as well as their own practices and procedures. Red flags must be investigated immediately, and the union fully backs having a robust review of all incidents," Larson's Monday statement said. "Clearly these incidents warrant a deeper look into the cultures and policies that allow violence against students to occur and there are clear actions that can be taken."

The statement called for school districts to take four initial steps:

— Review how complaints are handled.

— Ensure adequate training is in place to help administrators look for signs of sexual misconduct and to document it.

— Ensure districts have clear procedures to deal with allegations of sexual abuse.

—Ensure districts follow their own procedures, including completing investigations related to harm of students as quickly as possible.

— Bethany Barnes

Got a tip about Portland Public Schools?

Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.com

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.