PORTLAND — A remaining mystery about Portland Public Schools’ protection of educator Mitch Whitehurst in the face of years of complaints of sexual misconduct: Who concluded that eighth-grade girls’ firsthand accounts about their gym teacher were rumors?
That decision, made in 2013, let Whitehurst skate yet again and is laid out in a video deposition. Yet no one will own it and no one will say who made that call.
School board members have pledged an independent investigation into the school district’s treatment of Whitehurst, which was laid bare in a recent Oregonian/OregonLive article. At least two board members say they specifically want to know who wrote off the girls’ firsthand accounts.
“I hope the investigation figures out who it was. I’d love to hear that person’s logic,” said board member Mike Rosen. “How many women had to come forward over 32 years before there was a credible complaint that wasn’t quote a rumor? I think it is embarrassing. I mean who is accountable?”
Even after he and fellow board member Scott Bailey said employees who made key decisions in the Whitehurst case need to be held to account, current and former district employees have remained mum.
School board chair Julia Brim-Edwards, explaining why she felt a thorough independent investigation was needed, didn’t hold back on her shock.
“As a parent, this is not at all how I would expect the school district to investigate and address student concerns about a district employee,” Brim-Edwards said. “The student reports about Whitehurst’s behavior are horrifying and deeply troubling.”
Current and former district employees who might know but won’t say who wrote off the girls’ fears include current lawyer Stephanie Harper, former top lawyer Jollee Patterson, former human resources director Sean Murray, former Faubion Principal LaShawn Lee and current Faubion principal Jennifer McCalley. None will say. District spokesman Dave Northfield has said he doesn’t know how the district could get any of them to talk.
The district’s choice to write off the girls’ concerns has drawn scrutiny after The Oregonian/OregonLive’s story revealed how the district repeatedly protected Whitehurst from allegations of sexual misconduct. Their complaints, registered in 2013, followed other formal firsthand complaints from a current student and former student in 2001, 2008 and 2012.
Whitehurst worked in the district for 32 years before he was terminated after a male colleague complained Whitehurst mistreated him. Whitehurst pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment in that case and ultimately lost his teaching license in 2016 after the state investigated a former student’s sexual misconduct claim Portland Public Schools had twice ignored.
Harper said repeatedly during a deposition in the coworker’s lawsuit that the conclusion of the district’s investigation at Faubion was that the girls’ fears were “rumors.”
Although Harper was not involved in the Faubion investigation, she testified as part of the lawsuit as the district’s designated representative of its collective knowledge. She was specifically tapped to convey “knowledge of allegations of sexual misconduct against Whitehurst and what steps, if any, the district took to investigate.”
There is no paperwork showing the district’s conclusion. Harper has stressed it is not her opinion that the girls’ fears were rumors. She said “rumors” is “the exact word that was conveyed” to her. But she refused to tell the opposing lawyer in the lawsuit and The Oregonian/OregonLive who conveyed that word to her.
Harper would not agree to be interviewed, but answered some questions in writing.
“Students should not feel uncomfortable like they did,” she said in an email. “There clearly was enough information to warrant concern and follow-up.”
But she has repeatedly refused to say who made the call on this investigation. In addition, she hasn’t answered questions about why she has continued to ignore this question.
What does exist are transcripts of interviews with 24 students conducted in response to girls hiding in the bathroom or purposefully wearing shoes not fit for gym so they could sit out. Seventeen students described being personally unnerved by Whitehurst, with 14 saying they saw him leer at girls.
“He doesn’t bother to learn our names,” one girl reported when relaying that he called her and others “babe” or “baby.” “He stares at chests and butts… He’s looking like ‘she looks good’ for over a minute at a time.”
“I saw him look at her backside. I panicked. People tell me it’s happening to me too,” another said. “I feel scared. I’m afraid of him.”
“I wore the wrong shoes on purpose,” said another. “I like P.E. but I don’t want to be watched.”
Those statements and the many others like them are not rumors, attorney Matthew Ellis told Harper during the deposition. Who concluded they were remains unsaid.
Murray and Lee never responded to questions from The Oregonian/OregonLive conveyed to them last month and again this week. McCalley would not agree to be interviewed. Patterson said she would not discuss district business, even though current school district officials gave her written permission to do so.
