Oregon school officials under fire for mocking students

By Associated Press - Wednesday, January 25, 2017

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Two Willamette Valley school administrators are under fire after text messages in which they mocked students were made public.

Creswell High School Principal Andy Bracco and Assistant Principal/Athletic Director Jordan Osborn were caught texting each other about students, The Register-Guard reported Wednesday (https://is.gd/oXeMJa).

The text conversation occurred on Jan. 13 during a Creswell basketball game at Pleasant Hill High School. A person in the stands took a photograph over Osborn’s shoulder of the texts to Bracco on his phone.

One text made fun of a student’s weight. Another suggested a former student was doing drugs.

District Superintendent Todd Hamilton confirmed that the copies of the text were between Osborn and Bracco.

In an email sent to Creswell High School families Monday, the two administrators apologized for their comments.

Fred Stauffer, whose daughter was mocked in the exchange, said the nature of those texts is exactly why his daughter transferred to another school before the start of the 2016-17 school year.

“She left that school because she was being bullied,” Stauffer said. “She was there (at Pleasant Hill) cheering at her own school, happy as can be, and to have her leave a surrounding like that (in Creswell) just to have them bring it back to her was atrocious.”

Stauffer and his wife, Meg Stauffer, had a meeting with the superintendent Monday where they received an apology. Stauffer said it wasn’t enough.

“He said, ’I can’t talk to you about what will happen with the administrators because it’s a personnel issue, but what are you wanting to happen here?’” Stauffer said. “That’s an unbelievable response to me. People in other professions - like health occupations - are let go in the same day for behavior like this.”