Two women who were students at St. Helens High School in the late 1980s say Gene Evans groomed and sexually assaulted them when he was a teacher.
Illustration by Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Note: This episode involves sexual abuse. Please keep that in mind in choosing when and where to listen. And if you or someone you know may be a victim of sexual abuse, confidential support, information and advice are available at the National Sexual Assault Hotline by calling 800-656-4673.
In November of 2024, protests erupted in the small Oregon city of St. Helens. Students and parents called for more accountability after two teachers were arrested for allegedly abusing students.
A police investigation led to the arrests of choir teacher Eric Stearns and recently retired math teacher Mark Collins, who were charged with sexually abusing multiple students between 2015 and 2024.
This is not the first time that a teacher at St. Helens High School has been accused of abusing students.
OPB reporter Joni Auden Land covered the upheaval in St. Helens as it unfolded late last year.
Around that same time, they got an email from someone who graduated from high school there in 1988. The email was from Jodie Westing, and she said that when she was a 17-year-old senior at St. Helens High School, a 31-year-old teacher groomed and manipulated her into a sexual relationship with him.
The teacher Westing says abused her was Gene Evans, who later became a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Education and the Department of Human Services.
Westing’s email launched a monthslong investigation by OPB. Joni joins us to tell the story and give us a window into their reporting process.
Listen to all episodes of The Evergreen podcast here.
