Newberg school superintendent named in federal misconduct lawsuit

Newberg Superintendent Stephen Phillips is among a handful of former administrators at a rural Oregon school named recently in a federal lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed in late April in U.S. District Court in Portland and claims Phillips and two other administrators in the Jewell School District failed to properly protect a then-14-year-old student in that district from a predatory teacher that has since been imprisoned.

The now 22-year-old plaintiff in the case is referred to in legal documents as Jennifer Doe and is represented by Crew Janci, a high-profile Portland law firm that specializes in sexual abuse cases. In the lawsuit, the young woman alleges that the Jewell School — which houses roughly 175 students from kindergarten through 12th grade and resides in the coastal mountains east of Seaside — failed to adequately police the actions of shop teacher David Brandon despite repeated reports from other teachers and students of his inappropriate behavior concerning female students.

Phillips was employed at the Jewell School District as an executive administrator from 2018 to 2019 and as superintendent from 2019 to 2021. He was hired in May 2022 as superintendent in Newberg. Phillips, former Superintendent Alice Hunsaker, former Principal Terrence Smyth and the Jewell School District are named in the lawsuit.

Phillips did not respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit claims that the Jewell district became aware of Brandon’s behavior as early as 2014.

“Defendants possessed extensive notice that Brandon posed an ongoing danger to the district’s students, including knowledge that Brandon had engaged in illegal conduct with multiple students and had committed numerous unconstitutional acts of misconduct, sexual misconduct, sexual harassment and sexual abuse,” the lawsuit says. “Defendants chose to continuously retain Brandon until defendants allowed Brandon to quietly resign after the 2018-2019 school year, despite defendants having extensive notice of Brandon’s dangerousness toward female students, including plaintiff …”

Brandon, then 39, began a sexual relationship with the then 14-year-old plaintiff in April 2017 and carried it on for months although “information about Brandon’s relationship with plaintiff was discussed widely through Jewell School and was known to Jewell School District administrators and staff,” the lawsuit alleges. It also claims the teacher regularly supplied the plaintiff with illicit drugs.

In fall 2018, in his role as executive administrator, Phillips and Hunsaker allegedly found Brandon alone with the plaintiff and another minor female student behind closed doors. By that time the teacher’s bad behavior was well known by administrators, who reportedly had taken some steps to curb it, including installing cameras in the classroom where Brandon taught shop, according to the court filings. Yet, the lawsuit claims, the administrators’ actions were insufficient.

“District defendants took no immediate meaningful action to restrict Brandon or protect minor students from the known danger he posed,” the lawsuit says.

Phillips responded to the incidents by interviewing several students, the lawsuit claims, who corroborated Brandon’s behavior. Phillips reportedly issued an official reprimand against Brandon for his “inappropriate interactions with students,” but “did not take decisive action to restrict Brandon’s access to minor students or to otherwise prevent harm to plaintiff of other students,” the lawsuit says.

The allegations specific to Phillips center only around an April 2019 incident where a school district volunteer said she witnessed the plaintiff openly using marijuana in a classroom and reported it to administrators. The plaintiff and two other girls who regularly used marijuana with Brandon in his classroom were called into Phillips’ office, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiff revealed that it was Brandon that supplied the vape pen the trio was using to access the marijuana.

“Thereafter, Phillips effectively expelled (the) plaintiff, rescinding an inter-district transfer and forcing plaintiff to return to her zoned school in the Vernonia School District,” the lawsuit claims.

Brandon, the lawsuit claims, was allowed to serve out the 2018-19 school year, and then the defendants facilitated him obtaining another teacher job at an elementary school in the Knappa School District in Astoria. It was two years later, in November 2021, that Brandon was arrested and accused of third-degree charges of rape, sexual abuse and sodomy, as well as unlawful delivery of a marijuana item, in the Jewell case.

Brandon pleaded guilty in March 2022 to two counts of third-degree rape, one count of third-degree sodomy and one count of distribution of a controlled substance. The remaining charges were dropped as part of the plea bargain. He was sentenced to 36 months of probation and ordered to pay $1,500 restitution to the plaintiff.

A report from his parole officer in October 2023 said Brandon has violated his probation by failing a drug test when meth was found in his system. In April, a Clatsop County judge revoked Brandon’s probation and sentenced him to a 36-month prison term.

In claims for relief specific against Phillips, the lawsuit argues that the superintendent ignored or paid little heed to ample evidence that Brandon was engaging in improper conduct with the plaintiff and other students at Jewell School, “but took no action at all to limit Brandon’s access to plaintiff or to otherwise stop Brandon’s ongoing deprivations of plaintiff’s constitutional rights.”

As a result, the lawsuit seeks a jury trial and punitive damages as determined by the court, as well as reimbursement for attorney fees and other costs resulting from prosecution of the case.

The lawsuit also seeks similar punitive and compensatory damages from the other defendants in the case.

The Newberg-Dundee school board met in executive session on May 9 under a state statute that allows them to “consider the dismissal or disciplining of, or to hear complaints or charges brought against, a public officer, employee, staff member or individual agent who does not request a public hearing.”

Board chairwoman Nancy Woodward said in an email the following day that the board hopes to address the lawsuit in a statement that is forthcoming.

“I just finalized the statement with legal counsel this afternoon, but need all board members to read it,” Woodward said on April 10. “The (school district’s attorney) thinks it is best to formally vote on the statement at the board meeting on May 14. That means we would not release a statement prior to that.”

Not Phillips’ first brush with controversy

Phillips has found himself the target of controversy in the past.

According to a 2023 story in the Daily Astorian newspaper, the Jewell school board placed Phillips on paid administrative leave in March 2020 while it conducted an investigation into the firing of a popular Jewell basketball coach in connection with a sexual harassment claim by an assistant coach and family friend. The investigation was regarding whether he acted within the district's policies. The board then hired an acting superintendent while Phillips was under investigation.

In addition, in March 2018, Phillips was forced to resign his post as deputy superintendent of the Beaverton School District after he allegedly retweeted a social media post that said immigrants kill thousands of Americans every year and are "more dangerous than assault rifles," a report on Oregon Public Broadcasting said. The original tweet was distributed by a group calling for a crackdown on illegal immigration.

The superintendent of the district issued an apology and disavowed his deputy's statements. Phillips resigned the following day.

Phillips also stirred controversy in the Beaverton School District in 2018 when he sought to ban the book, "Stick" by Andrew Smith from middle school libraries. The young adult novel deals with sexual themes and features a gay main character.