Nearly five years before police arrested choir teacher Eric Stearns for sexually abusing multiple students, the vice principal at St. Helens High School wrote to Principal Katy Wagner that Stearns likely committed similar acts before.

One month later, Wagner issued an investigative report finding that math teacher Mark Collins had “physically touched students in the upper back, neck, or leg area.”

In both cases, Wagner and other St. Helens High School leadership failed to notify law enforcement, the Department of Human Services and the Oregon Teachers Standards and Practices Commission – all actions required by state law. Both Stearns and Collins are awaiting trial on sexual abuse charges.

These and other findings are included in a report commissioned by the St. Helens School District board in December 2024, with the goal of finding whether high school staff had violated policy in handling reports of suspected abuse.

That report was completed Feb. 7. School district officials fought its release, but OPB obtained a copy Friday after petitioning the Columbia County District Attorney’s Office.

The investigation started two weeks after the arrest of Stearns and Collins, which threw the district and the entire St. Helens community into turmoil.

In the report, investigator Dave Novotney wrote that it appeared district officials had multiple opportunities to “intervene and potentially stop the alleged sexual conduct, suspected abuse, and other alleged policy violations attributed to Eric Stearns and Mark Collins.”

“District records, however, fail to document that the administrators took appropriate action,” Novotney wrote.

Stearns had complaints from students for years

Concerns about Stearns’ time in St. Helens date back to 2016. According to the report, Stearns said he resigned from his previous position at Tigard-Tualatin School District after a female colleague there had filed complaints against him. The Tigard-Tualatin district had placed him on paid administrative leave.

Novotney wrote there’s no evidence that the St. Helens School District reached out to Tigard-Tualatin about Stearns’ issues at the district.

The first complaints made by students against Stearns came in August 2019, with one student saying that Stearns was “hitting girls on the bottom during cheer practice.” Stearns was serving as cheer coach at that time.

No investigation ever took place, or administrators failed to report the concerns to state authorities, the report states. District employees are required to report all suspected abuse to police and the state Department of Human Services.

Wagner is facing two felony charges of criminal mistreatment resulting from the scandal.

Then-vice principal Darcy Soto received two additional complaints against Stearns in November 2019, alleging he had made sexually inappropriate comments to students. Soto launched an investigation, interviewing multiple students.

She determined the allegations were founded and sexual in nature. She notified Wagner about her findings. Again, no reports were made to law enforcement or state officials, Novotney wrote.

‘After a few days he touched my leg’

The allegations against Mark Collins also took place near the end of 2019. Administrators received three different reports that Collins had made inappropriate comments and had inappropriately touched female students.

“He has rubbed my arm and put his fingers in my hair and said, ‘Come on, get to work.’ Almost every class that I showed up to 2nd period, he would touch me either on my shoulder or on my hair/head or neck,” one student reported.

Another student reported that Collins “grabbed my shoulder and squeezed and ran his hand down my shoulder, after a few days he touched my leg.”

This time, Wagner took the lead in the investigation, interviewing several students who said they saw Collins touching other students. In the course of her investigation, other students reported instances of Collins touching them.

Within a week of the allegations surfacing, Wagner wrote a “Letter of Findings” to Collins.

“I have determined there is sufficient evidence to substantiate that you physically touched students in the upper back, neck, or leg area,” Wagner wrote.

But she determined that “there was never any sexual intent to these physical interactions,” which meant that Collins’ actions were not sexual harassment under Oregon state law, she said, citing Oregon Senate Bill 155. A copy of the letter was supposed to be placed in Collins’ personnel file, but Novotney wrote that it wasn’t there. He later found it in a separate file of investigative reports. Collins resigned from the district in 2022.

Report withheld from public for months

District officials had promised late in 2024 that Novotney’s report would be made public. After multiple delays, former St. Helens superintendent Karen Gray said in March that the report would be delayed indefinitely because the district had received multiple tort claims.

In March 2024, the St. Helens School District paid $3.5 million to the victim of former teacher Kyle Wroblewski, who pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual abuse in 2019.

OPB originally requested a copy of the Novotney investigative report on March 26, but the school district denied the request. OPB attorneys petitioned the Columbia County district attorney to review the records and determine if they were properly withheld under Oregon’s public records law.

District Attorney Joshua Pond then referred the review to Multnomah County. On Aug. 22, Multnomah County Assistant District Attorney Adam Gibbs issued a decision that the St. Helens district must release the bulk of the report.

Reached for comment Friday, St. Helens School Board Chair Reed Hjort referred OPB’s questions to district spokesperson Stacey Mendoza. An email to Mendoza at 6 p.m. received an automatic reply, indicating Mendoza would be out of the office until Tuesday.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/08/29/st-helens-high-school-abuse-report-leaders-failed/