Over the course of our reporting about the Newberg School District, we’ve continued to have questions about Superintendent Steven Phillips, hired by the school board in 2022 to assume leadership of a district in crisis. At that time, another candidate for the superintendent role, someone with a distinguished history in Newberg who was recommended by a number of educators and parents, was overlooked in favor of Phillips: a person with serious baggage. Phillips had been fired from the Beaverton School District for racist social media posts, and was on leave from Jewell School District when he was hired in Newberg.
It wasn’t ever clear why Phillips was suspended from his Jewell position, but a recent court filing might provide some answers. As reported by The Oregonian, in a lawsuit filed on Monday in Clatsop County, a former Jewell student alleges that a teacher abused her sexually for several years, over 100 times, and supplied her with marijuana and other drugs. The suit alleges that despite ample evidence by other employees in the school building, the abuse was not curtailed, nor was the offending teacher forced out of his position.
Instead, the suit says, he was allowed to quietly resign and apply to other school districts, who were not aware of his predatory behavior. The teacher’s license was revoked in fall 2023, and on April 9, he was sentenced to three years in prison.
The Oregonian article provides some details alleging Phillips’ culpability as a leader in the district who did not protect the victim, nor by extension other students in the district. But the lawsuit itself, which you can read here, is even more damning.
Here are some allegations:
“Phillips…interviewed multiple students from Brandon’s classroom who corroborated concerns about Brandon’s boundary violations and inappropriate conduct towards students. Among the concerns was Brandon spending most of the instructional period behind closed doors in his private office with female students (one of whom was Plaintiff).”
“As set out above…Defendants had extensive information [of] Brandon’s dangerousness towards female students. Despite Defendent’s knowledge of this information, neither the District…Executive Administrator/Superintendent Phillips, nor any other district staff reported this information to the proper authorities, undertook any investigation…nor made any attempt otherwise to end, mitigate, or prevent Brandon’s ongoing sexual abuse of Plaintiff.”
“On April 1, 2019, a Jewell School District volunteer walking by Brandon’s class saw Plaintiff smoking marijuana and reported it to the school administration. A small group of three female students (including Plaintiff) who regularly used marijuana with Brandon in his classroom were called into Superintendent Phillips’ office…Plaintiff disclosed to Superintendent Phillips that it was Brandon who had supplied her with the marijuana vape pen. Thereafter, Phillips effectively expelled Plaintiff, rescinding an inter-district transfer and forcing Plaintiff to return to her zoned school in the Vernonia School District. Plaintiff’s father also told Phillips that he believed Brandon supplied the marijuana to Plaintiff. District Defendants did not take any meaningful action in response to this information. Instead, District Defendants allowed Brandon to complete the 2018-2019 school year…the District Defendants facilitated Brandon obtaining another teaching job, this time with grade schoolers…”
“Throughout the period of Brandon’s boundary violations, harassment, and grooming of Plaintiff while Plaintiff attended Jewell School, much of which was observable, occurred within view of the Defendants, the Defendants (1) failed to question Brandon about the nature of his relationship with Plaintiff, (2) failed to investigate comments and reports that Brandon had an intimate relationship with Plaintiff, (3) failed to report reasonable suspicion of child abuse of Plaintiff to police or state authorities, and (4) failed to create and enforce an appropriate boundary between Brandon and students…in doing so, Defendants acted with deliberate indifference to the safety of students…and/or tacitly authorized Brandon’s misconduct to continue.”
In a district where teachers have unfairly and incorrectly been accused of being sexual predators, and of indoctrinating students, it’s extra troubling that our superintendent did so much to shield an actual predator, despite ample evidence that the teacher was causing significant harm to a student. Superintendent Phillips has a lot to answer for here, and we hope he will address these allegations directly rather than brush them away with more toxic positivity.
Newberg Neighbors for a Better Community 