Oregon Legislature passes sexual grooming bill following Salem-Keizer Public Schools suit
The Oregon Senate unanimously passed a bill Tuesday to better protect students from sexual grooming in schools.
HB 4160 increases the time during which an individual is considered a “student,” from 90 days to one year after graduating or leaving high school, for laws requiring reporting, investigation and disclosures about a school employee, contractor, agent or volunteer engaging in sexual contact with a student.
“The dyanmics of a high school student and their teacher, that is a power dynamic that is never going to be equal,” said Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, D-Corvallis, who carried the bill in the Senate. “I hope we can all agree that high school staff should not be having romantic relationships with their students, even in September after graduation.”
The Oregon House unanimously passed the bill on Feb. 20. It now goes to Gov. Tina Kotek for her signature. The legislation would take effect July 1, 2024.
Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem, said he introduced the bill at the request of Salem-Keizer Public Schools Superintendent Andrea Castañeda. The district is facing a civil lawsuit brought last fall by graduates accusing a music teacher of grooming them while they were students.
"It makes one change in statute," Mannix said. "That one specific change is made so we can better protect our students from inappropriate relationships."
The bill doesn’t change any criminal laws for sexual abuse. Instead, it allows districts to use the conduct as a basis for discipline and employment decisions.
"We're aware of situations where former students have felt they were consenting to a relationship at the time and later realized that they had been groomed, manipulated and deeply impacted," said Debbie Joa, prevention and protection coordinator for Salem-Keizer Public Schools.
Lawsuit asks for $10 million
Last September, two female former McNary High School students filed a $10 million lawsuit against Joshua Rist, a former McNary choir teacher, alleging he groomed and sexually abused them between 2015 and 2020. The lawsuit also names the school district, alleging it failed to protect them from the teacher.
The district had placed Rist on paid administrative leave more than two years earlier, on May 28, 2021, following similar allegations.
In June 2021, district officials sent a formal misconduct report to the Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission. TSPC also received an Oregon Department of Human Services report alleging the same misconduct. The Keizer Police Department also investigated.
Rist returned from leave on Aug. 18, 2022, and was moved from McNary to Kalapuya Elementary School. He was again placed on paid administrative leave Feb. 9, 2023.
On June 8, 2023, Rist and TSPC signed a stipulation of facts, meaning Rist agreed that evidence would support the commission's findings that Rist established inappropriate personal relationships with the two women while they were students at McNary.
TSPC concluded Rist had engaged in gross neglect of duty.
Rist returned to Kalapuya at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, but was again put on leave on Oct. 2, after the district received an additional complaint about him from a former McNary High School student.
Rist remains on paid administrative leave. An investigation into the additional complaint still is ongoing, district officials said.
Tracy Loew covers the environment at the Statesman Journal. Send comments, questions and tips: tloew@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6779. Follow her on Twitter at @Tracy_Loew
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon Legislature passes sexual grooming bill
