St. St. Helens principal faces ongoing investigation after teacher sexual harassment arrests

ST. HELENS, Or. The principal of an Oregon high school rocked by allegations of sexual abuse faces an ongoing investigation for his failure to report child safety concerns, the Oregon Department of Human Services confirmed Thursday.

Dr. Katy Wagner has been in St. Petersburg for 6 years. He serves as the acting principal of St. Helens High School.

Earlier in the month, St. A current teacher and a former teacher at St. Helens have been arrested for alleged sexual abuse of students.

PREVIOUS NEWS: St. Helens Police arrest two high school teachers on sexual abuse charges

The “current” teacher has been identified as 46-year-old Eric Stearns. He has since been placed on leave. He was a choir teacher, according to the district’s website. A lawsuit was filed on seven sexual abuse charges.

Former teacher Mark Collins, 64, was also accused of inappropriately touching minors at school. He was charged with two counts of second-degree sexual abuse and one count of attempted second-degree sexual abuse.

Both men denied the charges.

After the arrests, parents and community gathered in St. Helens went to the school district and told the board they had lost confidence in keeping their children safe. The region’s St. The case became even more controversial when St. Helens police claimed they directed Stearns to continue employing and teaching classes during the sexual abuse investigation. only for the police to say he did no such thing.

“You guys are willingly and knowingly putting my daughter at risk,” one parent told the school board during an explosive community meeting.

READ MORE: After the teachers were arrested for sexual abuse, the Board decided to take action against St. St. Helens Superintendent puts Stockwell on leave

Other allegations have been made that the district was aware of the abuses but did not report them. St. Marchella Shaefer, a teacher at Lewis & Clark Elementary School in the St. Helens School District, said she has worked there for 28 years.

“I’ve known about this good old boys’ club for year one, and they’re protective, they hide a lot of things, and eventually this happens. I won’t lie, for a long time I was afraid to talk, but now I’m not afraid. “You know, we need to protect our children,” he said.

On Nov. 21, ODHS said it had three open investigations into people connected to the alleged crimes: Stearns and Collins for sexual abuse, and Principal Katy Wagner.

“There is a pending investigation into allegations of negligence resulting from the failure to notify Katy Wagner of child safety concerns,” ODHS said in the statement.

The agency also said there were no prior formally documented reports against Collins or Stearns before October 2024, and St. He noted that there were no prior, officially documented reports of safety concerns at St. Helens High School.

Like district manager Scot Stockwell, Wagner was placed on leave by the district just days after the allegations were dropped. Chairman of the Board Ryan Scholl resigned.

The district said Nov. 18 is a work day for staff to learn how to properly handle sexual abuse allegations.

St. Students at St. Helens returned to school on November 19. The district says they are provided with “support systems.”

The Oregon Department of Human Services, Office of Training, Investigations and Safety (OTIS) investigates reports of abuse against non-family third parties. This includes school officials (including teachers, principals, coaches, etc.) as well as caregivers at residential treatment facilities. ODHS was authorized to conduct these investigations effective July 1, 2019.