Portland Public Schools has paid more than $300,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a middle school teacher who claimed she was sexually harassed by male students over the course of years, including an incident where a group of seventh graders made a video recording zooming in on her buttocks while making sexual comments about her.
Susan Anglada Bartley also contended that the district failed to adequately address what she saw as a larger and pervasive schoolwide problem, then retaliated against her for pushing for change.
Anglada Bartley claimed she wasn’t the only victim of the unwanted attention — she said female and LGBTQ+ students at Kellogg Middle School in Southeast Portland were bombarded with sexual comments and touching, too.
“I continued to say we need to address this head-on,” Anglada Bartley told The Oregonian/OregonLive. She said she hadn’t set out to “blame” the boys, but she did want the school’s administration to teach them about appropriate behavior and respect for all.
“Children need to be taught boundaries,” she said.
Anglada Bartley had been slated to go to trial next week in Multnomah County Circuit Court, but the trial was canceled after she agreed to settle her $550,000 lawsuit for the $301,000 the district offered. Approximately 40% of that will go to pay her attorney’s fees.
As part of the settlement, she agreed to resign her position as eighth grade language arts teacher. She hadn’t worked at the school since October 2024, when she said a district-led attack campaign against her prompted her to take medical leave.
District officials declined to comment when given a chance this week. But the settlement agreement states that the cash payout isn’t an admission of fault.
And in court papers, the district’s lawyers, Karen Vickers and Beth Plass, wrote that the “alleged sexual harassment … was isolated and sporadic and not sufficiently severe to form the basis of a hostile work environment claim.” The lawyers contended the district “took prompt corrective measures to remedy inappropriate student conduct.”
Among the harassment Anglada Bartley said she endured from fall 2021 to fall 2024:
- An eighth grade boy shouted out to her during class in 2021 that he’d like her to refer to him by his new pronouns, which he listed as a sexually explicit term.
- That same boy also tried to prevent Anglada Bartley from confiscating his cell phone, which he had out in the open, by stuffing it down the front of his pants. Anglada Bartley reported that the boy encouraged her to “come grab it” because he knew she’d like to.
- A group of seventh grade boys surrounded her outside the school after the closing bell, video-recorded her buttocks with a cell phone and exclaimed “sexy, sexy, sexy.” According to an email the school’s principal sent Anglada Bartley, the 2022 incident was captured on school surveillance video, and one of the boys later said he participated on a dare in exchange for $5.
- When she would turn her back to her class, boys on repeated occasions made grunting and guttural sounds that she later described as “somewhere between the bathroom and the bedroom.” Notes taken by the school’s principal also documented a day in 2023 when students said other students moaned and whistled while Anglada Bartley was teaching.
Many of the details of Anglada Bartley’s allegations are documented in more than 250 pages of emails, letters, declarations and excerpts from depositions that have become part of the court record since Anglada Bartley filed suit nearly two years ago.
Those instances also include a female teacher who reported to school administrators that she was slapped in the buttocks by a male student and another teacher who wrote school administrators to say several girls reported “an immense amount of frustration and distress from their experiences being sexually harassed and assaulted by male students at Kellogg.” The email continued: “These students all expressed that they do not have confidence in the adults at Kellogg to support them in situations like this.”
Anglada Bartley said frustrations among female students came to a head in 2022, leading to a mid-morning walkout. Hand-drawn posters stuck to the school’s walls advertised the purpose of the event: “Girls in our school are being sexualized and harassed by boys. Teachers and other staff aren’t doing enough about it!”
“I’m sorry this happened,” he wrote, according to an email that became part of the court file. “This is unacceptable. Tomorrow I’ll review the footage and see who the students are. I’ll contact parents, set expectations and perhaps escalate further depending on who they are.”
Anglada Bartley, however, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that she soon came to believe that the district wasn’t serious about getting to the root of the problem. She said she was first told three of the five boys whom she believed were involved would be suspended for two days. But records included in the court file show the boys ended up suspended for one day, in what Anglada Bartley contended amounted to an unscheduled vacation day with no direction on how they could learn from their actions.
In a written transcript of his deposition, Smith, the principal, said the school set no expectations for how the boys would spend their day and the school didn’t check in with them to reestablish standards when they returned to classes the next day.
“When there was no consequence for the boys, boys started harassing girls more,” Anglada Bartley said.
While the problems were unfolding at Kellogg, it’s clear school communities across the district and the nation were grappling with #MeToo moments, as well. For instance, girls at Roseway Heights Middle School in Northeast Portland organized a 2021 walkout in protest of unwanted touching and comments. That same year, Portland-area high school students took to Snapchat to report dozens of allegations of sexual violence perpetrated by classmates.
At Kellogg, Anglada Bartley said she asked for assemblies during which school administrators could talk to students about boundaries and the problems that can stem from recording others for social media without their permission. She said that request was denied. Instead, she said teachers were given a slideshow to present to students that she thought placed the onus on girls to change boys’ behavior.
The end result of her advocacy, she said, was she was closely watched.
According to records submitted to the court, the district opened investigations into complaints that others had made about her and handed down admonishments. That included issuing her a letter of reprimand after the district determined she encouraged students to write the administration letters expressing their feelings about the grunting noises in class. And in a separate instance, the district sent her a a non-disciplinary “letter of expectation” after she reported the name of a co-worker she suspected may have sexually abused a student.
Elizabeth Inayoshi, the Hillsboro lawyer who represented Anglada Bartley, said she believes that the school district’s six-figure settlement reflects the “strong case” her client had against it. Inayoshi said school and district administrators were dismissive of Anglada Bartley’s complaints, treating the behavior of students who sexually harassed her as “boys will be boys” or “puerile teasing.”
“More problematically, in an effort to stop and distract from her valid complaints,” Inayoshi said in an email, “Kellogg and PPS ultimately instigated multiple unwarranted retaliatory investigations and discipline within a six-month period against a 20-year veteran teacher who had a spotless and award-winning record until then.”
Anglada Bartley taught at Franklin High, Grant High and Bridger K-8 School, before starting at Kellogg in fall 2021. Now 46, she said after submitting her resignation earlier this year as part of the settlement agreement, she no longer plans to teach.
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