Zerpa feels that grooming may have happened in his case, and others. He said Jenkins was very well-liked by a significant portion of students and fellow teachers.

Students would often be in her room during break times and after school talking with her about non-school-related personal problems, according to Zerpa and other Lincoln alumni who were in Jenkins’ classes.

This non-academic relationship can erode the natural boundary between a teacher in his or her professional role, said Zerpa.

“If you have a ‘cooler,’ ‘hipper’ teacher that doesn’t stick to the status quo, it breaks down that barrier between teachers and students a little bit, and you start seeing them more in a ‘cool adult’ role,” he said. “So when they start doing things wrong, you start to justify that behavior.”

The 2012 case involving Sato, the social studies teacher, follows the same pattern.

One former student of Sato’s, Alex Meyer, told the Cardinal Times that the teacher fostered close relationships to students.

“He was particularly friendly with female students. He took a liking to them just as they took a liking to his charm,” said Meyer, who had Sato in 2011-12. “He was much closer with some female students than other teachers were.”

Another case of misconduct involving a charismatic educator at Lincoln occurred in May 2014, when substitute teacher Daniel Dickason filled in for a history class.

Dickason, who was 64 at the time, quickly broke down the professional barriers meant to separate teachers and students, a TSPC investigation obtained through a public records request found. He showed students his Facebook feed, which included photos of his high school prom date, a marijuana leaf and a “provocative pose with a tango dancer,” according to the TSPC.

He also allowed students to be on their phones and go to Starbucks during the class, the report said.

After developing this relaxed attitude with students, he passed one female student a note asking her to attend his birthday party that weekend, investigators found. The student felt extremely uncomfortable and reported Dickason to the administration.

He resigned as a substitute in 2014 as part of a settlement agreement with the district.

Dickason could not be reached for comment.

In his interview with the TSPC, Dickason admitted he “violated student-teacher boundaries and used poor judgment” during a time when he was “suffering from clinical depression and had an increasing problem with alcohol,” investigators wrote. He denied any romantic or sexual interest in the student.

Another consequence of raising concerns about a popular teacher: reporting can create repercussions for the student, said Elliott.

“You wouldn’t want to be the person who goes against the crowd. When you go against the crowd, you’ve upset the teacher’s life, people aren’t going to believe you and you’ll be called names – it’s a lose-lose situation.”

This was a factor in Zerpa’s case, he said.

“I basically disappeared all summer because I could not stand the messages I was getting,” he said. “Given how popular of a teacher Jenkins was, she had almost a cult following. Because she had awesome relationships with so many students who loved her, she turned to those people to make it look like I was coming out of left field with all of this.”

But the retribution against Zerpa went even further:  He said he felt repercussions from other teachers for his remaining three years at the school.

“The teachers were split between ‘Team Jenkins’ and not, and I could feel which teachers still had a grudge against me. They knew, ‘this is the kid who got our friend fired.’”

Another source who requested to remain anonymous confirmed that Zerpa was treated poorly by other teachers who supported Jenkins.

There is also the fear of not being believed by administrators, but Chapman, the principal, said that awareness of the investigation procedures can alleviate this fear.

Due to employer-employee confidentiality laws, Chapman said she is unable to inform the student about the result of an investigation initiated by a complaint. This may have fostered a belief among students who have reported that the administration does nothing.

“[A person who makes a complaint] may feel like ‘I have told [Ms. Chapman] this’ and nothing happened. [But] something happens when somebody comes and shares that information, but it may not be that the person was fired.

“It may be that there was a letter of expectations (which suggests ways to avoid misbehaviors by the teacher), it may be that there was a conversation, it may be that there was documentation,” she said.

Zerpa said he was contacted throughout the summer following his complaint as PPS conducted its investigation, but he was not informed of the eventual outcome of his case.

Though Chapman could not speak specifically on Zerpa’s case, the confidentiality laws likely are why Zerpa was never informed of the official outcome of his complaint.

Another obstacle is the fear of repercussions from the accused teacher. Raczek, Lincoln’s union representative, hopes that a revision in the new teachers’ contact adopted in February could alleviate one concern.

Article 25, which addresses complaints against teachers, formerly read, “If a complaint is made to a supervisor about the professional educator […] the supervisor will request that the complainant discuss the matter directly with the professional educator.”

This would have forced student victims to directly confront their abuser.

The new contract adds to the end of that sentence, “except if the complaint involves allegations of sexual conduct.”

Raczek said this is something the union strongly pushed for. “We don’t want the student having to go to talk to the teacher about this,” she said

Dobey, the trauma counselor, said that to encourage reporting, there first needs to be a focus on mental health in the education system.

“Coping skills, stress tolerance, emotional regulation all need to be integrated into the curriculum, and we need to have more professionals working in schools,” beyond counselors who have massive caseloads and a focus on college admissions, she said. Doing this will help a student cope with the trauma of sexual abuse and encourage them to come forward.

“Any sort of abuse can be very alienating,” she said.

A former Lincoln counselor, Joyce Liljeholm, said counselors’ workloads make them more impersonal to students. “As a counselor, I was concerned about students being able to speak privately with me, as our case loads were over 400 students,” she said in an email.

Chapman said that two new staff members hired with Measure 98 funds could alleviate this problem.

One of them is Judy Herzberg, a mental support counselor who will be in the counseling center 10 hours per week.

“My role is to work with students and families on emotional and mental health concerns,” Herzberg said. She receives referrals from counselors and can work with students for free and without parent consent or knowledge.

She said that as a PPS employee, she does have a mandatory duty to report abuse against a student, but all other discussions are confidential.

In the case of sexual misconduct by a teacher, she said she would talk with the student and “help them understand that it is not their fault.”

Further, newly hired student engagement coach Michelle Hardaway will help monitor attendance, which can start to decline when the student is targeted by a teacher, Chapman said.

Herzberg and Hardaway supplement the work of Gina Batliner, a licensed professional counselor who works for Western Psychological and Counseling Services, but has an office in the counseling center at Lincoln.

Batliner does bill students who come to her, so she more often works with students who have talked to parents beforehand.

Dobey, the counselor at Integrative Trauma Treatment Center, also said that the professionals and administrators who are asking students to report to them need be proactive and make themselves known on a personal level – not just a name on a poster or in an announcement.

“[Victims] need to know the person on the other end (of a report) will be kind and compassionate. Having more practitioners come into classrooms and talk about who to go to will give a face [to these resources].”

Zerpa agreed. He said he was glad that he already had a relationship with administrators. “It made it easier for me because I didn’t feel like I was telling a complete stranger what happened.”

Olson declined to comment further when contacted by the Cardinal Times.

While these court records may not have been digitized at the time of Jenkins’ hiring, they were always available at the courthouse and could have been part of a background check.

“[This] showed it wasn’t the first time she had groomed a child,” Zerpa said.

Jenkins told TSPC investigators she did not know that the father of her child was 16, according to records of the interview. She said she believed the father was 20.

Elisa Schorr, Title XI coordinator in the HR department at PPS, explained the background check process for new hires.

“The TSPC does the fingerprint check and fitness for duty investigations on any licensed position. [Then] our security services does a criminal records check by name, date, and social security number,” she said in an email. “We look at convictions, arrests and court orders, such as restraining orders. We have access to court records in case we need more information.”

On why Jenkins’s actions in 1992 did not raise red flags, PPS spokesman David Northfield stated, “Since it was not a criminal matter, it would not show up in a background check.”

Not referencing the Jenkins case specifically, Chapman said the vetting process for new hires has improved in recent years.

“The background checks are much more in-depth and sophisticated, even in the last five years,” she said.

Chapman also said the background check now has the mandatory step of contacting the teacher’s last direct supervisor, even if it is in another state.

The Lincoln administration relies on the school district to vet new teachers, she said.  

“We interview from a pool of candidates that [the district] pre-screen[s] and then we send HR the name of our first choice and we do reference checks,” Chapman said. “We don’t hire, we just get to recommend for hire. Then HR completes the rest of the hiring process after a full background check.”

Whitehurst was allowed to move schools after complaints by students. When he arrived at a new school, his personnel file seemed to be cleared of the reports against him, according to The Oregonian.

The Whitehurst case has led to calls for better inter-school communication about potential hires.

Chapman said this is already happening to an extent.

She is now required to communicate any sexual misconduct complaints to a senior director at the district. Before, any notes on the teacher that didn’t result in discipline, but were taken for documentation purposes, would only go into the teacher’s “building file,” which contains records of complaints that stay at Lincoln. Now, the district has these files, as well.

“PPS has responded to recent issues and set up new practices so more information goes to the central office, and that is a good improvement,” Chapman said.

Further, she said, “principals work together to protect students and no one I know would move a teacher they thought was potentially harmful to students, to another school.”

Lincoln campus security officer Frank Acosta believes positive change will result from the investigation into what went wrong in the Whitehurst case.

He is sometimes involved in investigating reports of misconduct, and he said requiring an even bigger paper trail in these investigations could help ensure that reports are not ignored or misplaced when teachers move schools.