Parents and community members in Lake Oswego are speculating and exchanging rumors in the wake of the sudden retirement of a school administrator who’d led one of the local public schools for more than ten years.

The Lakeridge High School community learned Dec. 5 that principal Desiree Fisher was leaving the school. OPB has learned that education and law enforcement investigators have been looking into Fisher and staff at the school she led. But the outgoing principal’s official reasons for leaving relate to her health.

“After much thoughtful consideration, I have made the very difficult decision to retire at the end of this calendar year so that I can focus on my health and my family,” Fisher announced in an email.

With questions coming from parents, teachers and students, the school district responded a few days later with a message thanking Fisher, while also signaling that safety and legal concerns were relevant to the principal’s departure.

“Please know that the safety of our students, our commitment to board policy, and our obligation to follow state law are always our highest priorities,” Lake Oswego School District Superintendent Jennifer Schiele wrote in a Dec. 9 message. “All reported concerns have been taken seriously, thoroughly investigated by our district and law enforcement, and addressed promptly and appropriately.”

In an email, Lake Oswego police said they “investigated allegations that were made against Lakeridge High School Staff, and we found that there was no criminal activity in the City of Lake Oswego.”

Police couldn’t say whether there was criminal activity found in other jurisdictions.

Oregon’s Teachers Standards and Practices Commission, the agency responsible for licensing and disciplining educators, confirmed that Fisher is the subject of an ongoing investigation. But the commission’s director of professional practices, Cristina Edgar, said in an email that under the agency’s complaint process, “we are not able to disclose any other information.”

Without further information, parents in Lake Oswego have taken to social media to discuss rumors, often while acknowledging that the information is unconfirmed.

The most recent communication from Lake Oswego school officials focused on how the district is shifting administrators to fill the void created by Fisher’s abrupt departure. The current principal of Lake Oswego Middle School, Kevin Mills, will take over as Lakeridge principal on Jan. 1, and the middle school assistant principal will take over Mills’ job.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/12/12/lakeridge-high-school-principle-desiree-fisher-lake-oswego-oregon-portland/