Law&Crime Sidebar - TikToker Busts Alleged Pedophiles Working at High School: ‘Everyone Knew’

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

A former student of St. Helens High School in Oregon has gone viral for exposing both a current and former teacher who have been accused of misconduct with students. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber and predator catcher Chris Hansen discuss the horrifying claims, as well as allegations of a cover-up.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lcsidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. views shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Two high school teachers from my former high school were arrested today. And this is all public record now so I can share it all. A couple months ago, I made a video about some of my experiences at this high school 20 years ago. And I talked about how this school has a history of protecting predators. If you tell me about the abuse of a minor, I'm going to report it, so I did. A series of TikTok videos led to the arrests of alleged pedophile teachers at an Oregon high school. After a former student shared disturbing abuse claims, more students came forward

with their own stories leading to these shocking arrests. I'm going to sit down with the renowned predator catcher Chris Hansen to explore how these social media posts help bring secrets to light. Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime, I'm Jesse Weber. Two former teachers at St. Helens High School in Oregon have been arrested on charges of sexual abuse, and it's all because of a TikTok video posted by a former student. Yeah, we're talking about Doug Weaver, who graduated in 2007.

He uploaded a video accusing the school of essentially protecting predatory teachers when he attended. This year, this particular school, had a $3.5 million settlement for allegations that they know that students are in danger and they do nothing. Everybody knew. I knew that Robleski was a risk to students in 2006. When I was in his history class, one of my best friends was in that class with me, and we would always go work out in the hallway because she couldn't stand to be in the room with him. Everyone, everyone in that school knew. Now, that lawsuit that Weaver is referring to involved a former teacher at the school. This

is Kyle Robleski, who was convicted back in 2019 of sexual abuse. And it was this video that he shared back in September that helped expose further allegations of serious misconduct at this school. Weaver began receiving an influx of messages from other former students sharing their own stories of disturbing behavior they had witnessed or experienced from staff at the school. I have had a ton of people sending me messages from the town I grew up in. Telling me about things that teachers have done, things that teachers are doing, things that staff members, administrators are doing. People are spilling tea left and right.

Everything from students who graduated last year to former employees who were bullied out of their job, current employees at the school district who are afraid to speak up because they're afraid to lose their jobs, Parents who currently have kids in the school district there, and even some current students have been sending me messages. And some of the messages pointed to Eric Stearns, a 56-year-old choir teacher who was working at St. Helens High School at the time. And as more people came forward, Weaver decided to take action. I made a video about some of my experiences at this high school 20 years ago. And I talked about how this school has a history of protecting predators. And when that happened, I had so many people send me messages about this guy.

And I'm a mandated reporter. If you tell me about the abuse of a minor, I'm going to report it. So I did. And the next day, I got a call back from detectives Edwards and Smith. And they asked me not to post about Stearns until they finished their investigation. Now, weaver forwarded the allegations to a state-run tip line called Safe Oregon. And this was just really the beginning of what would become a major investigation into the school's handling of abuse allegations. When I made that first video, the principal of this high school criticized me for revisiting past issues that have been addressed.

But clearly, the predatory behavior of teachers at this school district has not been addressed. And she said that they take the safety of students very seriously and investigate all allegations brought to their attention. I don't believe that because I have reason to believe that a lot of these allegations had been brought to her attention and that she did not investigate them. So it was mid-October when detectives had contacted Weaver about these reports, but they had already begun investigating Stearns as well as another teacher. 64-year-old Mark Collins, but it seemed that it really took this TikTok video to alert authorities about what was going on and it actually sparked a fire in this investigation. And by the way, as a matter of fact, despite prior concerns about Stearns, he was actually working at the school up until he was arrested while he was being investigated. Now, the police investigation focused on several students who were allegedly harmed by these two teachers. The alleged victims who have chosen to remain anonymous say some of the abuse happened while Collins was still a teacher, and that it continued even after he retired.

After a two-month-long investigation, Stearns and Collins were both arrested on numerous counts of sexual abuse. Stearns is accused of abusing six underage girls between 2015 and 2024, and Collins is accused of abusing three underage students between 2017 and 20203. Now, we weren't able to find any photos of Mr. Collins, but we did, find out about him on TruthFinder. So we put his name and location into this very powerful background checker and found out that he has several traffic violations on his record all the way back to 1988. He pleaded no contest to grand theft in the second degree. He had to pay restitution. He spent two years on probation. And law and crime, we partner with TruthFinder. We use it to get details on a lot of people involved in our stories. But look, even if you don't work in

true crime, this can be an excellent resource to give you some peace of mind. It's one of the largest public record search services in the United States. And with a paid subscription service, you can get access to unlimited reports about almost anyone. And so if you're interested right now, you can get 50% off of your first month of confidential background reports. Just go to truthfinder.com slash LC sidebar. Okay, back to this.

Following the arrest of these two teachers, the community was left reeling. St. Helens High School, their staff members, they posted a letter to the community on Friday saying, we are meeting, listening, asking so many questions and trying to figure out a way forward that can bring this school together in the wake of a crisis that should never happen to any school. And at a school board meeting, parents and students, they express their frustration with school administrators for not doing enough, seemingly, arguably ignoring these allegations. Two months, this teacher was at school in contact with minors and children, our children and I would like to understand if my one question is you all if you

were aware of the situation notified through police and investigators why was he still allowed on school grounds I just want to know what's being done that we seem to attract the files from school district once we've done and prevent that what's being done with the staff that's allowed that to happen for a decade in fact a student at this meeting even alleged a very creepy encounter she had with Eric Stearns. As a vulnerable 14-year-old girl, I didn't find that it was weird that he'd hug me, kiss me on the head, and tell me that he loved him.

I felt alone in this world and I needed somebody, didn't that? I didn't question it. In fact, I didn't question it when my own mom read up her concerns about our closeness. I was vulnerable, I was vulnerable and I was naive and the school district had covered up many past previous sexual abuse from former staff members, but this will be the last. And then you had another student who talked about this alleged unwanted contact that she and other students experienced from Mark Collins. Students of myself have been put in inappropriate behavior by Mr. Mark Collins,

when he would make them uncomfortable by touching an interpulsory piece, which is grabbing their inner thigh when he kneels down to help him. down girls shirts by standing behind them and rubbing their back. He came over to me and asked my needed help and he rubbed the front of my shoulder right here and all the way back to my shoulder plane. I went to the vice principal Ted Carney and told him that he didn't believe me. Now in response, the school said we are committed to ensuring the safety of all of our students. Like everyone here, our first and foremost commitment has always been the well-being and safety of our students.

We are committed to both transparency and cooperation with law enforcement. Please know that we will not waver in our commitment providing a safe journey requirement for all students. I want to ensure everyone we are consistently reviewing our policies and practices, including those around sexual conduct and promote safety for all students. But here's the thing. That outrage from the community, it didn't end at that school board meeting. No, the next day, students organized a mass walkout to protest the district's handling of this case. In fact, 100 students, parents, community members, they gathered to demand that the school officials be held accountable.

In response, the school district placed the St. Helens High School principal, Katie Wagner, and Superintendent Scott Stockwell, on paid administrative leave. Ryan Scholl, the chair of the school board, also announced his resignation. And by the way, this is not the first time St. Helens High School has been linked to a scandal involving teacher misconduct, as we had mentioned earlier. My former history teacher, Kyle Robleski, was arrested and convicted of S.A. But after that, there was a separate lawsuit for state-created danger. Essentially, the claim was that the school district knew that this teacher was dangerous. And they didn't take the proper steps to keep the students safe, creating a foreseeable risk of Kyle Roblesi. abusing students. The lawsuit was against the school district, the school board, and the superintendent Scott Stockwell. They reached a settlement of $3.5 million, the largest settlement of this kind ever in the state of Oregon. All right, so help me break this down. I want to bring on special guests, renowned predator catcher Chris Hanson, host of Take Down on True Blue and the podcast

Predators I've caught with Chris Hanson. Chris, good to see you. Thanks so much for coming back on. Thank you, Jesse. Interesting case, I think with the TikTok, the fact that the TikTok, That video is what launched everything. You see that a lot? You really don't see it like this. First of all, it's outrageous that this alleged activity went on for a decade without school district officials acting. I mean, they knew there were allegations.

They knew there was talk among the students and other teachers, and yet they didn't take action. So, you know, you have to ask the question. First of all, is the school district complicit in this? What was their responsibility? And then here we have a prime example. of somebody taking social media and a platform and using it for good. Because this parent got out there and he raised awareness and something happened.

Well, he was talking about his experiences at that school. Yes. And more people reached out to him and it amplifies it amplifies. And I think that's so interesting using a platform like that. The most recent example I think is the Diddy case where you're seeing people who, if they're not responding to what's happening in lawsuits, sometimes they go on social media. And that's, again, I think, an interesting way that you're seeing in these

kinds of cases. Well, you see all these cases, you know, that are, you know, being put together for the various lawyers representing the did he survivors victims. And a lot of these people are coming forward through social media. And I see it all the time with our predator investigations on True Blue. We did a sting a couple weeks ago. And the episode hasn't even aired yet. And I'm getting messages from family members of this particular predator we caught saying he did this to me as his stepdaughter 10 years ago. So we get a lot of information this way, but I've never seen it at this level on TikTok where a parent came out and reported this activity that was going on generationally. You mentioned it before. These allegations, if you take them as true,

has been going on since 2015. Where was the school? Well, apparently... I mean, we don't know if it's true. It's allegations, but... And, you know, everybody's got their day in court. You and I know that, But, you know, you got to really be aggressive about taking a look at these cases. And it appears, and again, I haven't been out there, and I haven't done all the interviews, but from everything I've seen, that there was a real resistance for whatever combination of reasons for them to face the reality that this might be happening in their school district. But it was interesting that you see a number of people resign in the aftermath of the, there's an outpouring. They knew they were wrong, right?

I mean, it was so outrageous, so egregious, and, you know, this father who made the TikTok is very brave to put himself out there like this, because, you know, one misstep, and then suddenly he's the target of a lot of online hate. There was one thing that I just couldn't understand. I wanted your perspective on it, so Stearns, who was one of the defendants here, they allowed him to continue to work while he was under investigation, not while he was arrested, but Obviously, while he's under investigation, they allow him in the school to continue working? Explain that to me.

I can't explain it because you've got even more risk if you allow that to happen. Is he trying to coax children who he's targeted into not testifying or cooperating in the investigation, either by the school district or by law enforcement? You have to take that person out of the environment, even if you keep them on the payroll while there's an investigation. And yes, there was also the possibility that there are wrongful allegations made. And we see this, you know, we see misinformation campaigns on social media, on TikTok, and people's reputations do get sullied because of this. And so you have to be very careful here.

But they had enough time, more than enough time, to deal with this and get to the bottom. That's actually an interesting question. Have you seen in your experience, like legitimate false allegations, maybe against a teacher? And then it turns out it was all fake or they were. the charges are dropped, and then they come back to the school? Have you ever seen anything like that? I've seen cases where there have been misinformation campaigns, where students have said things that were untrue about a particular teacher

to get back at them for harsh grading or things like that. That can happen. But in most of those cases, if the school district is on it and investigates and gets to the bottom of it, typically when the students who conduct the misinformation campaign are put on the spot, they say, yeah, we were just goofing around here. We didn't realize the potential consequences here. I want to ask you about this.

So this TikToker, Doug Weaver, he mentions in one of his videos that he was contacted by the principal of the school. And in her email, she allegedly mentioned that bringing up issues from the past that have been addressed make it more difficult to move on. and I believe this was in reference to the $3.5 million lawsuit that was filed against that other former teacher, Kyle Rubleski. In response to that, Weaver says, just because one predator was caught does not mean the environment that protected him has changed. What do you make of that? Well, I think, again, it's an attempt by the school district to keep this under wraps.

I mean, even if there is a settlement and even if the case was resolved, don't people have a right to know that this was going on in their school district? I think they do. I think teachers in our society, while potentially underappreciated and undercompensated, hold a very important and critical job. And so we need to make sure we choose the right people, and we probably need to pay them more, you know, on that subject. But having said that, these people have a daily access to our children at their most vulnerable and impressionable ages. And so it's important that we make the right decision. And if somebody does commit an act like this, people have a right to know about it.

If you're a parent sending your child to a school that's surrounded by these accusations that has all these problems with the administration, what do you do to protect your child? Well, I think you have to, you know, give some consideration to removing the child from that environment. And I know that's difficult, and people can't just move because there's an issue at the school and people can't always afford to go to private schools. And homeschooling isn't always an option, right, for a lot of different reasons. So it's very frustrating and vexing. So you have to make the noise at the school board meeting,

and you have to request private meetings with the people who are in charge and make your feelings known about this. I just go back to the idea of knowledge warning that this was foreseeable. Because going back to the $3.5 million lawsuit, I think the judge in that case said that this wasn't an isolated. thing was all the administrators who have to think about what happened. The blame goes further than that. And you have this superintendent who was only, you know, was resigned or was put on leave following these recent arrests. You know, you have people resigning. You have people being put

on leave. Is that sufficient? Is that a nominee? Well, I think the judge made a very good observation here. And it was a warning and took his responsibility as a judge very seriously and said, look, you guys need to really reevaluate the way you're operating the school district. And I think that's an important message. But it drives home the point, Jesse, that we talk about all the time on this show and on Take Down with Chris Hansen and on the podcast, predators I've caught. Your best defense is the relationship that you have with your child. And you have to create an environment where your child, no matter what age, can come to you

and say, you know, I felt uncomfortable because of this. and you can never, you know, kill the messenger on something like that. You got to listen and you got to take their their viewpoint seriously. You have to listen. You have to listen. And just to put a bow on this, when it comes to Stearns, he was booked into the Columbia County Jail after his arrest. Collins was released on bail. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges and as of now, the investigation is still ongoing. So police say that there could even be more victims who have not come forward and they've encouraged

anybody with information to reach out to police. So we'll see where this goes. Chris Hansen. Jesse, thank you. Good seeing you. Appreciate it. Always great to be here. All right, everybody.

That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad-free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.