Jewell School District will pay $2.35 million to settle a federal lawsuit alleging officials failed to stop a teacher who sexually abused a student from April 2017 to December 2018. The settlement follows the teacher’s criminal conviction and the revocation of his probation.
According to The Oregonian, the complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Portland and names the Jewell School District as a defendant along with former superintendents Alice Hunsaker and Stephen Phillips and former principal Terrence Smyth. The suit says the victim, now in her 20s, endured repeated sexual contact in the teacher’s classroom, in his truck and at his home, and that multiple staff members raised concerns before any decisive action was taken.
The teacher, David Michael Brandon, was convicted in Clatsop County in 2023 on two counts each of third-degree rape and third-degree sodomy and a count of unlawful delivery of marijuana. A judge later revoked his probation and ordered him to serve three years, Seaside Signal reported. Court filings alleged Brandon gave the student rides, gifts, personal notes and drugs while he had access to students, and that he resigned at the end of the 2018-19 school year.
“We are extremely proud of our young client’s courage in pursuing accountability for the Jewell School District,” plaintiff attorney Peter Janci told The Oregonian. The complaint seeks damages for what it describes as long-running failures by administrators to protect students despite repeated warnings and a written reprimand issued to Brandon in November 2018.
Legal and oversight questions
The federal complaint accuses district administrators of overlooking or downplaying multiple staff reports about Brandon’s conduct, a sequence central to the civil case as reported by The Astorian. Under Oregon law, school employees are mandatory reporters who must notify the Department of Human Services or law enforcement when they have reasonable cause to suspect child abuse, and the state Department of Human Services outlines reporting steps and a statewide hotline.
District response and next steps
“Lack of judgment, poor boundaries, lack of professionalism and danger to students,” is how a retired teacher described Brandon’s behavior in a statement quoted in the suit, according to The Astorian. Local court reporting notes Brandon’s conviction in 2023 and his subsequent probation revocation and prison order, coverage provided by the Seaside Signal.
Neither the district nor the attorneys have disclosed how the settlement will be paid out, and court records filed in Portland are expected to be the next public place to review the formal terms. For now, the agreement closes this round of civil litigation while leaving broader questions about hiring, supervision and mandatory reporting for local school boards and families to consider.
