Lake Oswego - The men accuse a former teacher of sex abuse in ‘73 or ‘74

Three men filed a lawsuit against Lake Oswego School District and a former teacher Thursday, seeking $6.3 million in damages on grounds the teacher sexually abused them more than 30 years ago.

One objective of the civil suit, filed in Clackamas County Circuit Court, is to challenge the constitutionality of the two-year statute of limitations on abuse charges against Oregon government employees, said Kelly Clark, the Portland attorney representing the three men.

Under Oregon law, victims of sexual abuse have only two years to file a suit against a government agency, though there is no statute of limitations for private organizations such as the Boy Scouts or churches.

"If we’re successful and the court strikes this statute down, it would open the door for other abuse survivors who were victimized by government employees to bring suit," said Clark, who has represented sexual-abuse victims in suits against the Archdiocese of Portland, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Boy Scouts of America, among others.

William Korach, superintendent of Lake Oswego schools, said he has notified his school board, district attorneys and the district’s insurance company about the "unusual" suit.

It was filed anonymously by three men, all in their 40s. They allege their Bryant Elementary fifth-grade teacher, Judd W. Johnson of Lake Oswego, now 66, fondled their genitals inside their clothing in class in 1973 or 1974.

Johnson was working at Lake Grove Elementary in Lake Oswego 10 years later when he was charged with sexually abusing a male student. He resigned on Feb. 1, 1984, after pleading guilty in Clackamas County Circuit Court to second-degree sexual abuse. He was sentenced to two years’ probation and counseling, and the state revoked his teaching license.

Johnson told The Oregonian he taught in Lake Oswego for 20 years and knew nothing about Thursday’s lawsuit. "I’d rather not say anything more to you now," he said.

The former students suing him are seeking $2 million each for emotional trauma and "permanent psychological damage." They also seek $100,000 each for future therapy.

Even though the alleged abuse occurred decades ago, Clark said the men recently recognized how profoundly they had been hurt by the abuse and approached him.

The suit argues the state’s two-year statute of limitations "is inherently unreasonable" by requiring the men and other victims of abuse by governmental employees "to bring suit before being able to consciously recognize that they have been injured."

Sexual abuse victims do not usually repress their memories of assault, said Clark. But most try to deny its importance, often for decades, until a family crisis, news story, counseling or some other event forces them to confront how their abuse has affected them emotionally and psychologically, he said.

Each man in the lawsuit says that moment of discovery came for him in 2006 or 2007.

Bill Graves: 503-221-8549; billgraves@news.oregonian.com

By WILLIAM McCALL

Associated Press Writer

By Pete Springer

OPB.com

Portland, OR
February 25, 2008

Negotiations to release documents related to the Portland Archdiocese clergy sex abuse cases have broken down and will likely end up in mediation next month. Pete Springer reports.

Attorney Kelly Clark is representing more than a hundred abuse victims. He says nearly a year after reaching a legal settlement with the Archdiocese of Portland, very few documents have actually been released.

Clark says the release of the documents was key to settling the sex abuse lawsuits.

Kelly Clark: “We want the public to be able to learn what the archdiocese of Portland knew about sex abuse and when they knew it.  That’s all we’re saying, release the documents you said you’d release.”

However, there is no specific deadline for releasing these documents.

A spokesman for the archdiocese says they haven’t released everything because some of the documents are under a protective order and contain names and medical records of priests not involved in the lawsuit.

Clark withdrew from negotiations with the Archdiocese after it requested full names of abuse victims -- rather than just initials -- be used in court documents.  

The case heads back to court in March and will enter mediation in April.

The Boy Scouts of America and the Mormon church face another lawsuit for alleged child sexual abuse.

The $5.1 million case filed Thursday by a Portland man alleges that Larren Arnold, a Boy Scout and Mormon youth leader, abused him as a Scout in Idaho and Oregon between 1967 and 1970.

Arnold, now 72, was convicted in Bannock County, Idaho, in 1985 of felony child abuse in an unrelated case.

A May 31, 1990, letter from then-Ore-Ida Council executive Kim Hansen, obtained by The Oregonian, says:

"Arnold’s ecclesiastical leader . . . had firsthand knowledge of child sexual molestations of one or more Scouts. No charges were filed as the mother was talked out of it at the time by church leaders."

The Scouts blacklisted Arnold in 1991, six years after his conviction, Scout records show.

The plaintiff, now 53, is the seventh Portland man suing the Boy Scouts for alleged sexual abuse.

One case, brought by two brothers last year, also targets the Mormon church. Combined, all the suits seek $33 million.

The latest case, like one other, alleges the Boy Scouts and the Mormon church knew by the 1960s they had a widespread pedophile problem. The Scouts nationally removed leaders at a rate of one every three days for child molestation, the latest suit says.

"These institutions of trust -- the (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and the Boy Scouts -- which held such emotional, spiritual, and moral authority over children, badly failed at protecting them," said Portland attorney Kelly Clark, who is handling the suit along with others.

The Mormon church and the Boy Scouts say they take child abuse seriously, do everything possible to protect children and will investigate the alleged abuse from 40 years ago. Boy Scout Ore-Ida Council executive David Keeper said the Scouts need an opportunity to review the case before responding to its specifics.

Church spokesman J. Craig Rowe said in an e-mail that it "seems difficult for anyone to claim that some unidentified church leader somehow kept the matter (Arnold’s 1985 conviction) from becoming public, or otherwise allowed Arnold to prey on children."

The case was filed in Malheur County, where some abuse is alleged to have occurred.

Arnold, reached in Arizona, said he lives in Pocatello, Idaho.

He said he abused more than one boy while a Scout leader, stayed in Scouting for 12 to 15 years and that the church and Scouts never questioned his background or tried to stop him.

Arnold said he turned himself in in 1984 for abuse in the Bannock County case. He said he has had a clean record since, went through years of treatment and doesn’t recall molesting anyone in Oregon.

"I’m not saying I didn’t do it, but I don’t remember," he said. "I’m sorry for what happened."

KTRV - Fox 12, Boise, Idaho

Idaho Press Tribune  and The Associated Press

BOISE — A man has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the Boy Scouts and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, contending they didn’t do enough to stop a Scout troop leader from sexually abusing children.

Scout and church officials said the organizations take such allegations seriously and will investigate the claims even though they happened decades ago. But an LDS church spokesman criticized the plaintiff’s attorney for going to the media before taking the claims to church.

The plaintiff in the suit, only identified as “Tom Doe” in the legal documents, is a 53-year-old man who was born and raised in Nampa, according to his attorney, famed sex abuse claims attorney Kelly Clark.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday morning in Malheur County Circuit Court in Vale, Ore., which is where Clark said the majority of the abuse took place. The plaintiff alleges that Larren Arnold, a leader of his Nampa Boy Scout troop, sexually abused him for about three years, when the victim was between the ages of 10 and 13, and that the abuse left him with debilitating physical, emotional and mental injuries.

“My client worshipped Arnold; (he) thought the sun rose and set on him,” Clark said. Due to the sexual abuse his client received, Clark said his client has suffered a loss of respect for authority figures, of trust in others, and of his spiritual faith.

“He was a very devout person. He grew up in a devout family and had a testimony,” Clark said. “What is loss of faith worth? I know what it’s worth to me, and you can’t put a price on it.”

Scouts, church react

Arnold could not be immediately reached for comment. A recorded message for a Pocatello listing under Arnold’s name said the number had been temporarily disconnected at the customer’s request.

David Kemper, the Scout executive for the Ore-Idaho Council, said he had not yet seen the lawsuit and so couldn’t give specific comments. However, Kemper said, the Boy Scouts take any allegation of child abuse seriously.

“No matter when it is made, the issue of child abuse is serious and the organization is committed to making sure children involved in the program are able to do so in a safe environment,” Kemper said. “The Boy Scouts’ child abuse program is extensive. We have training for our adults in youth protection, and we’ve taught our youth the three Rs — recognize, resist and report.”

J. Craig Rowe, spokesman for the LDS church in Idaho, said the church also takes the allegations seriously.

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a zero-tolerance policy for child abuse and does all it can to help victims and report abuse. It will seriously investigate these decades-old allegations,” Rowe said in a prepared statement.

Recounting allegations

While Arnold was never convicted of a criminal act against his client, Clark said Arnold was convicted of sexual abuse of a minor under 16 in 1985, “a good 15 years after what happened to my client.” Arnold received a sentence of three years in prison for that offense, Clark said.

Arnold was listed as a registered sex offender in Bannock County several years ago for that unrelated offense but is no longer on any Idaho sex offender registry, according to public records.

Bannock County probation officials would not release any details of the case or Arnold’s current sex offender status.

Lawsuit names

organizations

The accuser alleges that the Nampa ward of the LDS church “called” Arnold to serve as a Scout troop leader to educate and minister to LDS families and their children. The troop was jointly operated by the Boy Scouts and the LDS church,

he said.

The accuser maintains that leaders of the Boy Scouts Ore-Ida Council, the national Boy Scouts of America organization and the church knew they had “institution-wide child abuse problems.”

At least one church official, who served as the troop’s assistant scoutmaster, knew the abuse was occurring, Clark alleged.

“My client knows for sure that one of the assistant scoutmasters witnessed the abuse,” Clark said.

“He was in the same tent. So he should have reported it and it should have stopped right then. We know, unfortunately, that this guy was allowed to go on and abuse kids for several more years.”

The plaintiff reported he was abused during scouting trips and outings in eastern Oregon and in Nampa, Clark said.

Despite the abuse claim and lack of criminal conviction against his client, Arnold is not included in the lawsuit.

“My client holds the organizations responsible,” Clark said. “Mr. Arnold has paid his penalties and his dues.”

Clark added: “We will prove that for at least five or six years after that, he was still on the Boy Scout rolls, and we think still serving.”

The attorney said he hopes that through this lawsuit, and through several other he has filed in the past, that the organizations will be stronger and safer, preventing abuse of other innocents.

“It’s not my view to shut them down. I believe it helps change good institutions and make them better. That’s my hope.”

Salt Lake City Tribune

Associated Press

BOISE - A man has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the Boy Scouts and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, contending they didn’t do enough to stop a Scout troop leader from sexually abusing children.
    The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Malheur County Circuit Court in Vale, Ore., by a 53-year-old man identified only as Tom Doe.
    Doe alleges that Larren Arnold, a leader of his Nampa, Idaho, Boy Scout troop, sexually abused him for about three years, starting in 1967, and that the abuse left him with debilitating physical, emotional and mental injuries.
    Arnold could not be immediately reached for comment. A recorded message for a Pocatello listing under Arnold’s name said the number had been temporarily disconnected at the customer’s request.
    Arnold was listed as a registered sex offender in Bannock County several years ago for an unrelated offense but is no longer on any Idaho sex offender registry, according to public records. Bannock County probation officials would not release any details of the case or Arnold’s current sex offender status.
    Doe, who grew up in Nampa but now lives in the Portland, Ore., region, alleges that the Nampa ward of the LDS Church "called" Arnold to serve as a Scout troop leader to educate and minister to LDS families and their children. The troop was jointly operated by the Boy Scouts and the LDS Church, Doe said.

Doe maintains that leaders of the Boy Scouts Ore-Ida Council, the national Boy Scouts of America organization and the church knew they had "institution-wide child abuse problems."
    David Kemper, the scout executive for the Ore-Idaho Council, said he had not yet seen the lawsuit and so couldn’t give specific comments. However, Kemper said, the Boy Scouts take any allegation of child abuse seriously.
    "No matter when it is made, the issue of child abuse is serious and the organization is committed to making sure children involved in the program are able to do so in a safe environment," Kemper said. "The Boy Scout’s child abuse program is extensive. We have training for our adults in youth protection, and we’ve taught our youth the three Rs - recognize, resist and report."
    At least one church official, who served as the troop’s assistant scoutmaster, knew the abuse was occurring, said Doe’s attorney, Kelly Clark.
    "My client knows for sure that one of the assistant scoutmasters witnessed the abuse," Clark said. "He was in the same tent. So he should have reported it and it should have stopped right then. We know, unfortunately, that this guy was allowed to go on and abuse kids for several more years."
    Doe was abused during scouting trips and outings in eastern Oregon and in Nampa, Clark said.
    Arnold was convicted of sexual abuse of a child under 16 in Bannock County in 1985, Clark said.
    "We will prove that for at least five or six years after that he was still on the Boy Scout rolls, and we think still serving."
    J. Craig Rowe, spokesman for the LDS Church in Idaho, said the church takes the allegations seriously. He criticized Clark’s approach to the case.
    "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a zero tolerance policy for child abuse and does all it can to help victims and report abuse. It will seriously investigate these decades’ old allegations," Rowe said in a prepared statement.
    "However, the way in which this case was filed raises a serious issue of which both the court and the public should be aware. The plaintiff’s attorney contacted media before the lawsuit was even filed knowing the church could not respond, in an attempt to create headlines rather than discover the facts. This approach trivializes the seriousness of child abuse and its tragic consequences."
    Clark said he has brought dozens of similar cases against the Roman Catholic church and is currently litigating seven cases against the LDS Church.
    "Based on my experience I would expect to find a long, ugly, broken trail of child abuse," he said. "I’m conscious of where we are and I would say that these both are rightly respected institutions, but the fact is in the 1960s and 1970s they were not doing their job."

By Adam Rodriguez

KCBI CBS 2

TREASURE VALLEY - A former Nampa boy scout is claiming he was sexually abused by a leader in the 1960’s. He says the Boy Scouts and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints failed to protect him from a predator.
Now, 40 years later, he’s suing both organizations for $5 million.

The former scout’s attorney was in Boise Thursday to talk about the lawsuit.

“He trusted his youth leader, his priesthood leader, who was also a boy scout leader. And that person badly betrayed his trust,” said Kelly Clark, of the Portland lawfirm O’Donnell and Clark, Attorneys at Law.

‘That person’ was allegedly Larren Arnold. The lawsuit alleges Arnold was the victim’s scout leader in the Nampa Second Ward in the late 1960’s. It’s not the first time he’s been accused of abuse. In 1985, Arnold pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of child sex abuse in Bannock County. But the lawsuit isn’t going after Arnold.

“If you put the fox in the chicken coop, you can’t blame the fox for doing what foxes do. You blame is the farmer. In this case, the farmer is the Boy Scouts and the Church,” Clark said.

The Ore-Ida Council of the Boy Scouts of America issued a written statement from scout executive David Kemper. It reads:

"Although we have heard of the litigation being brought against the Boy Scouts and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have not received the complaint… However the safety of children is the highest priority of the Boy Scouts of America."

J Craig Rowe, Idaho area public affairs director for the LDS Church, issued this statement:

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a zero tolerance policy for child abuse and does all it can to help victims and report abuse. It will seriously investigate these decades’ old allegations."

Clark said both organizations are responsible for the abuse. When asked if it’s fair to make an organization police its members, he said, “Are we asking that the Church and the Scouts be responsible for failing to police everything, or are we asking that they be liable because they didn’t do the very obvious thing of reporting it once they knew it was going on? We think it’s the latter situation.”

KTVB.com

Rebecca Boone
Associated Press

BOISE -- A man has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the Boy Scouts and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, contending they didn’t do enough to stop a Scout troop leader from sexually abusing children.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Malheur County Circuit Court in Vale, Ore., by a 53-year-old man identified only as Tom Doe.

Doe alleges that Larren Arnold, a leader of his Nampa, Idaho, Boy Scout troop, sexually abused him for about three years, starting in 1967, and that the abuse left him with debilitating physical, emotional and mental injuries.

Arnold could not be immediately reached by The Associated Press for comment. A recorded message for a Pocatello listing under Arnold’s name said the number had been temporarily disconnected at the customer’s request.

Arnold was listed as a registered sex offender in Bannock County several years ago for an unrelated offense but is no longer on any Idaho sex offender registry, according to public records. Bannock County probation officials would not release any details of the case or Arnold’s current sex offender status.

Doe, who grew up in Nampa but now lives in the Portland, Ore., region, alleges that the Nampa ward of the LDS church "called" Arnold to serve as a Scout troop leader to educate and minister to LDS families and their children. The troop was jointly operated by the Boy Scouts and the LDS church, Doe said.

Doe maintains that leaders of the Boy Scouts Ore-Ida Council, the national Boy Scouts of America organization and the church knew they had "institution-wide child abuse problems."

David Kemper, the scout executive for the Ore-Idaho Council, said he had not yet seen the lawsuit and so couldn’t give specific comments. However, Kemper said, the Boy Scouts take any allegation of child abuse seriously.

"No matter when it is made, the issue of child abuse is serious and the organization is committed to making sure children involved in the program are able to do so in a safe environment," Kemper said. "The Boy Scout’s child abuse program is extensive. We have training for our adults in youth protection, and we’ve taught our youth the three R - recognize, resist and report."

At least one church official, who served as the troop’s assistant scoutmaster, knew the abuse was occurring, said Doe’s attorney, Kelly Clark.

"My client knows for sure that one of the assistant scout masters witnessed the abuse," Clark said. "He was in the same tent. So he should have reported it and it should have stopped right then. We know, unfortunately, that this guy was allowed to go on and abuse kids for several more years."

Doe was abused during scouting trips and outings in eastern Oregon and in Nampa, Clark said.

Arnold was convicted of sexual abuse of a child under 16 in Bannock County in 1985, Clark said.

"We will prove that for at least five or six years after that he was still on the Boy Scout rolls, and we think still serving."

J. Craig Rowe, spokesman for the Mormon church in Idaho, said the church takes the allegations seriously. He criticized Clark’s approach to the case.

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a zero tolerance policy for child abuse and does all it can to help victims and report abuse. It will seriously investigate these decades’ old allegations," Rowe said in a prepared statement.

"However, the way in which this case was filed raises a serious issue of which both the court and the public should be aware. The plaintiff’s attorney contacted media before the lawsuit was even filed knowing the church could not respond, in an attempt to create headlines rather than discover the facts. This approach trivializes the seriousness of child abuse and its tragic consequences."

Clark said he has brought dozens of similar cases against the Roman Catholic church and is currently litigating seven cases against the LDS church.

"Based on my experience I would expect to find a long, ugly, broken trail of child abuse," he said. "I’m conscious of where we are and I would say that these both are rightly respected institutions, but the fact is in the 1960s and 1970s they were not doing their job."

LocalNews8.com

Thursday, February 21st , 2008

By KBCI staff

They call it “passing the trash,” and it’s a common policy that lets child abusers resign and move to another district

It would take months for the agency that licenses Oregon teachers to discipline a Salem-area teacher for inappropriately touching at least eight girls.

To get Kenneth John Cushing, then 44, away from Claggett Creek Middle School students immediately, administrators cut him a deal: If Cushing resigned, they would conceal his alleged conduct — clutching students’ waists, touching their buttocks and massaging their shoulders — from the public.

Cushing signed the pact — obtained by The Oregonian through public records requests — with Salem-Keizer Public Schools in 2004, and officials promised not to reveal the teacher’s behavior if potential employers called looking for a reference. They would attribute his departure to “personal reasons,” the document reads, and make “no reference to this agreement.”

Salem’s deal is just one of 47 similar confidential settlement agreements obtained or confirmed by the newspaper.

During the past five years, nearly half of Oregon teachers disciplined for sexual misconduct with a child left their school districts with confidential agreements. Most, like Cushing’s, promised to keep alleged abuse quiet. Some promised cash settlements, health insurance and letters of recommendation as incentives for a resignation.

The practice is so widespread, school officials across the country call it “passing the trash.”

The Oregonian reviewed 767 cases of educator misconduct over the past 10 years in which the state commission revoked or suspended licenses for misbehavior. Sex-related offenses ranked the most common, and in 165 cases the agency disciplined educators for misconduct ranging from touching students or sending them love notes to molestation and rape.

This, of course, is a tiny fraction of the 35,000 educators who teach, mentor and coach in Oregon.

The state Teacher Standards and Practices Commission eventually revoked Cushing’s license in January 2005. He went on to teach at a charter school in Tucson, Ariz., in the 2006-07 school year and drew no complaints or reprimands there, administrators said. He left after one year, citing “personal reasons.”

In August, he started work at Cardigan Mountain School, a private, all-boys school in New Hampshire. Headmaster David McCusker said Cushing didn’t reveal his misconduct in Oregon when he was hired, and background checks revealed nothing.

Cushing declined to comment to The Oregonian. McCusker says Cushing will keep his job there. “We have been pleased with his performance,” McCusker said.

Secret and expedient

Oregon public school officials say an educator suspected of sexual misconduct gives them few options. If they fire the educator, they may face a costly legal battle with teachers union lawyers. Putting an employee on paid leave is also expensive because the commission takes, on average, nearly 16 months to complete investigations.

The Oregonian found that in 2006-07, 28 Oregon educators missed 993 workdays while on paid leave during investigations of misconduct, at a cost of about $350,000 in salaries and hiring substitutes.

Cutting a resignation agreement offers the fastest, cheapest way for a district to push a problem teacher out of the classroom, school officials say.

That’s what the Three Rivers School District did with Stephen John Koller, a 30-year-old science teacher who later admitted to an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old senior at Illinois Valley High School.

School officials first notified the state in January 2003 that Koller was under investigation for allegations he was living with a female student.

Initially, the state commission ordered Koller into counseling. Then the Three Rivers school board offered Koller a deal: $10,000 in severance, six months of health insurance and a letter that said, “He is personally committed to his work and will work extra hours to be successful.”

In October 2004, the commission revoked Koller’s license, a decision that prevented him from using his recommendation to apply for work in another Oregon public school.

Koller, who declined comment, never taught Oregon high school students again. He subsequently worked at two community colleges, where administrators say they were unaware of his past sexual conduct.

“(The agreement) happened in a way that was least damaging to the school district and the kids,” says Jerry Fritts, Three Rivers superintendent.

But some school leaders say the widespread practice of cutting resignation agreements risks student safety for the sake of protecting districts from costly legal fees.

“You cannot lie for a teacher,” said Carolyn Ortman, a Hillsboro school board member and former member of the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission. “Just because a teacher isn’t good enough to work in your district, doesn’t mean they are good enough to work in anyone’s district.”

But even Hillsboro has adopted the common practice of providing only dates of employment when another district inquires about a former employee.

“The whole world of reference checks has become a legal arena,” said Hillsboro Superintendent Jeremy Lyon. “You are in a precarious place if you say anything positive or negative about a past employee.”

Michael Morey, a lawyer who represents victims of sexual abuse and has worked on several cases involving teachers, says the “cover-up” denies victims the chance to know they are not alone and shields school officials from accountability.

“Every organization that has an involvement with children should have open transparency and full disclosure when it comes to the abuse of children,” Morey said.

Similar problems with secret deals in California led the state Supreme Court to rule that districts can be sued for such pacts. The decision largely put an end to resignation deals, said Mary Armstrong, a lawyer for the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

In 1997, the California court ruled that a 13-year-old student sexually molested by Robert Gadams, a middle school vice principal in Livingston Union School District, could sue for fraud and negligent misrepresentation three districts that previously employed Gadams. Gadams had been repeatedly disciplined for sexual misconduct and received resignation agreements from all three districts.

“The secret deals are one of the main things that keep the wheels greased on the machinery that keeps passing around the molesters,” said Mary Jo McGrath, school law attorney and sexual abuse expert in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Protect pupils, teachers

Oregon’s commission, with its power to revoke licenses, marks the last line of defense in keeping schools free of harmful educators.

But the commission, a professional organization supported by license fees, also tries to serve educators and their interests. Teachers unions helped create the commission in 1965, and nearly all 17 commissioners are teachers or former teachers.

The agency has 2.5 investigators to handle nearly 300 pending cases across the state. It has not invested in additional investigators, despite a $1 million annual carryover, because state lawmakers must approve additional spending, according to Vickie Chamberlain, the agency’s executive director. Until last year, she didn’t ask for additional staff, assuming legislators would deny the request. In 2007, lawmakers approved increasing the staff from 1.5 to 2.5 investigators.

Still, lengthy investigations remain problematic.

In January 2006, Texas officials notified the commission that an Oregon teacher, Neil Martin Abrahams, sent mail to an imprisoned sex offender that included images of boys in swimsuits and information from the North American Man/Boy Love Association.

A commission investigator interviewed Abrahams, a 51-year-old substitute teacher working in four Portland-area school districts, in September 2006. Abrahams “admitted that he had fallen in love with a male student during a prior teaching assignment” in Texas, according to a commission report.

But after the investigator resigned, the case sat among the pending cases until August 2007, when the commission revoked Abrahams’ license.

Abrahams said he taught three to four days a week between the initial complaint and his discipline. He was never arrested or charged with a crime. He lost his license because he admitted to being attracted to children. Abrahams signed the stipulated order, but stated at the time that he didn’t believe the commission’s evidence supported all of its findings.

Much of the commission’s decision-making on teacher discipline is shrouded from public view. The status of investigations is kept confidential, even from school officials. In addition, the commission dismisses about half of the 200 complaints it receives each year.

Those, too, are kept confidential from the public and school officials, under a state law designed to protect innocent teachers from false accusations.

Through public records requests, The Oregonian uncovered two confidential settlement agreements in which the state commission promised not to discipline accused educators if they in turn agreed not to teach in Oregon. In a third confidential settlement agreement, the commission promised not to discipline a teacher publicly after going to mediation.

One of the agreements was reached in 2000 with Glen “Skip” Morris Kinney Jr., an elementary school teacher in the Redmond School District.

Kinney befriended a fourth-grader in his class, whom he took under his wing and treated like a member of his family. The girl said she grew to trust Kinney, even more than her father.

In 1991, when she turned 16 and Kinney was 32, she said, they started having sex. In 1996, following a 14-month investigation, Kinney was charged in Deschutes County with 19 counts of sex abuse. A judge acquitted him in 1999. Kinney acknowledged having sex with the girl, but only after she turned 18, the legal age of consent.

In 2000, Kinney signed a confidential agreement with the state promising to never teach in Oregon again. The deal allowed the state to avoid a contested case hearing. In exchange, the agency would not investigate him, discipline him or enter his name into a national clearinghouse that tracks teachers subjected to state action.

That agreement didn’t keep Kinney from trying to teach again. In 2001, according to Montana school officials, Kinney obtained a license to teach there. Jackie Boyle, communication director for the Montana Office of Public Instruction, says there is no record of Kinney actually teaching in the state. But Boyle also said it is unlikely that Montana school officials ever knew of Kinney’s conduct in Oregon. Montana does not make such settlement agreements.

When contacted by The Oregonian, Kinney said he is no longer teaching and works in construction in Montana.

Chamberlain, who wasn’t the commission’s director at the time, said she can’t comment on the Kinney case because of the confidentiality clause.

However, Chamberlain says such agreements are reached when commissioners recognize educators could pose harm to students, but don’t have the evidence to charge them with misconduct.

“It’s never an ideal situation,” Chamberlain said. “You really have to weigh the risk. The risk could be that a person who potentially is dangerous can be totally free.”

Ortman, who served on the commission for six years, said she rubber-stamped some disciplinary cases, which continues to haunt her.

“There were things in that discipline packet that would break my heart,” Ortman said. “It would make me so angry. In my heart, I believed (the teachers) deserved more.”

Though commissioners say they give student safety high priority, their mission also includes “always save a good educator,” Chamberlain said. Commission members have no written guidelines on appropriate penalties and rely heavily on the recommendations of investigators and Chamberlain.

“Our decision-making is based on the 17 people’s gut feelings,” Chamberlain said. “They usually are right.”

The commission usually gives teachers who touch students or watch pornography on school computers a public reprimand or probation and permits them to keep teaching if they get counseling and pass a psychological evaluation.

Even educators who admit to sexual misconduct with a student sometimes get a second chance.

Robert Philip Carwithen, a music teacher in the Sheridan School District, surrendered his license in 1997 after soliciting sex from a student. He got counseling, and the commission reinstated his license two years later. He now teaches in three schools in the Winston-Dillard School District in Douglas County.

“He’s earned our trust,” said Kevin McDaniel, principal of Douglas High School. “One of the reasons we were willing to take a chance was because he was very forthright about what happened.”

Still, it’s the granting of second chances, secret deals, slow investigations and naive staff that help problem teachers remain in Oregon schools, experts on sex offenders say.

That’s why Sen. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene, sponsored the law passed last year that requires all districts to offer education on child abuse to parents and staff. Walker also sponsored a law that allows the public to see the personnel record of any educator convicted of most sex-related crimes.

Oregon needs to be more aggressive in deterring offenders who rely on secrecy and ignorance, Walker said.

“There is a conspiracy of silence, and we need to blast it open,” Walker said. “No children should be robbed of their childhood by an adult.”

Amy Hsuan: 503-294-5137; amyhsuan@news.oregonian.com
Melissa Navas: 503-294-5959; melissanavas@news.oregonian.com
Bill Graves: 503-221-8549; billgraves@news.oregonian.com

Records show a pattern of missed red flags and ignored complaints from students

A Portland man sued the Boy Scouts of America and its local Cascade Pacific Council for more than $3 million Thursday, alleging sexual abuse by two troop leaders in the mid-1970s.

The case brings to at least six the number of people in Portland alleging sexual abuse and suing the Boy Scouts. Together, the suits seek more than $28 million in damages.

The case filed Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court alleges that the Boy Scouts allowed two Scoutmasters, identified as Steven Terry Hill and Thomas Hensley, to stay in contact with boys after they knew of sexual abuse.

"We also intend to prove that the Boy Scouts were well aware, by at least the 1960s, that they had a serious, institution-wide infestation of child abuse, stretching across the country, involving hundreds of predators and thousands of children," said a statement from Portland attorney Kelly Clark, who is spearheading the sexual abuse suits.

Hill, 58, is one of about 50 Oregon leaders expelled by the Boy Scouts for sexual abuse between 1970 and 1990 and more than 5,100 leaders expelled nationally since 1946, according to confidential Boy Scouts files and summaries obtained by The Oregonian.

Hill registered as Scoutmaster of Troop No. 76 in 1975 and molested three boys in the troop, according to the internal Scouts records. He was convicted of child sexual abuse in the 1990s.

Hensley does not appear to have a criminal record and does not appear in the Scouts’ internal records. The Oregonian could not reach Hensley for comment; court documents do not provide his age, middle name or place of residence, or say whether he is still alive.

Officials with the Cascade Pacific Council of the Boy Scouts of America declined to comment, noting that they had not been served by the court.

Clark said his client, an unidentified man now in his mid-40s, met Hill and Hensley at Gregory Heights Middle School in Northeast Portland at a recruiting meeting for "high adventure" Scouting with Troop 76. The lawsuit alleges that the Scoutmasters fondled and sexually abused the boy at least twice a week for two years starting in 1976.

Hill resigned in 1978, according to Scouts records.

In 1991, Hill was convicted of four counts of sodomy, five counts of delivering controlled substances to a minor and three counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor. He remains in prison.

The prosecutor in the case said Hill had an "almost amazing ability to manipulate teenage boys," using his work as a photographer, his purported training as a juvenile lawyer and his role as president of "The High Adventure Club."