SALEM, Ore. — Due to a "legal loophole," a former choir teacher at McNary High School has managed to keep his job with Salem-Keizer Public Schools despite multiple complaints that he pursued inappropriate relationships with students, the district superintendent said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
Joshua Rist, most recently a music teacher at Kalapuya Elementary School, is now on administrative leave for a third time after the district received a new complaint of alleged misconduct.
In late September, two of Rist's former students filed a lawsuit against him and the district, alleging that he groomed, harassed and abused them while they were minors. The new complaint is also from a McNary student and covers a similar time period, officials said. There have been no allegations to arise from Rist's time at Kalapuya.
Many Kalapuya parents were outraged when they learned about the lawsuit and the allegations it contained. Several asked school leaders to remove him from the classroom immediately, which the district did last week.
“A lot of the intensity died down from parents,” said parent Kensey McMillan. “But then there are a few of us who were like, 'Where is he going? Are you going to place him in another school? Are going to place him in, you know, administration? Are you going to remove his teaching license. What are you going to do?'"
“As a parent who’s had sexual assault happen in my past, you know, it’s like they don’t stop doing it," McMillan added. "You know, groomers don’t stop grooming. They don’t just grow out of it. They just don’t get over it.”
In Tuesday's briefing, Superintendent Andrea Castañeda detailed the timeline of events that led up to this point. She became superintendent at the beginning of July 2023, and she was briefed about the district's potential legal liabilities in the early weeks — including the broad strokes of Rist's case. However, she said, she did not learn the particulars of the allegations until his former students filed their lawsuit in late September.
"Based on what I know today, I do not believe Mr. Rist should be allowed to serve students in Salem-Keizer Public Schools or anywhere else," Castañeda said. "I have already removed him from Kalapuya, and to the degree that it is legally under my control, I will not reinstate him in a student-facing role."
The district shuffled Rist from McNary to Kalapuya more than a year after it first received reports from the two former students in May of 2021. The transfer occurred in August 2022, after multiple entities investigated his conduct — including Keizer police — and decided not to pursue criminal charges or any significant sanctions.
Because of this outcome, Castañeda indicated, the district has been unable to terminate Rist's employment.
"There needs to be irrefutable evidence that multiple investigating parties, and especially the school district, can point to that is a violation of the ethical standards of being a teacher," Castañeda explained, "or, conversely, meets the standard of a criminal action related to a juvenile or a criminal action as a finding related to overall Oregon statute."
While multiple former students have now alleged that Rist groomed them while they were still enrolled at McNary, what Castañeda referred to as a "blurring of boundaries," she suggested that he waited to pursue relationships of a more openly romantic or sexual nature until at least 90 days after they'd graduated and turned 18, above the bar for both criminal and ethical standards.
"The fact that a teacher can legally do this with recent high school graduates is unethical and morally unacceptable," Castañeda said. "I am therefore urgently calling on partners responsible for student and juvenile safety and our elected officials to address this as a matter of law."
Rist's wife also works in the district, Castañeda acknowledged. Previously a counselor, she is now an assistant principal at McNary. While she did not elaborate, Castañeda said that there is no investigation into her conduct and her role at the high school does not constitute any conflict of interest.
Salem-Keizer's timeline of events
According to the district, they first received a report about Rist's "possible misconduct" at McNary High School in June 2018. The district passed the report on to the Keizer Police Department while starting an internal investigation. That investigation wrapped in Sept. 2018, and the principal at McNary "addressed the issue with Rist" in a conversation. That was the extent of the disciplinary action taken.
After that, two of Rist's former students graduated from McNary, the first in June 2019 and the second in spring 2020 as schools closed due to COVID-19. In May 2021, both students made reports of Rist's inappropriate behavior to the district, officials said.
Upon receiving those reports, the district notified the Keizer Police Department, the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission, and the Oregon Department of Human Services Office of Training, Investigations & Safety. Meanwhile, the district placed Rist on paid administrative leave. All three entities, as well as the district, eventually launched their own investigations into the allegations.
In Sept. 2021, Keizer police referred the results of their investigation for review of potential criminal charges. The Marion County District Attorney notified the district in October that it was not pursuing criminal charges, concluding there was "insufficient evidence" to prosecute.
Not long after that, the district learned that the OTIS investigation had determined that allegations of child abuse were "unfounded." In January, the TSPC also dismissed allegations of sexual misconduct. Instead, TSPC decided to charge Rist with professional misconduct.
By the end of April 2022, the district completed an interview with Rist as it wrapped its employment investigation. Months later, in August 2022, it took "corrective action" and transferred Rist to Kalapuya Elementary School. Rist started work at the school on Aug. 30, his first day of work since he was placed on leave in May 2021.
In October 2022, the district received a tort claim notice from the two former students, essentially warning them of an impending lawsuit.
It wasn't until February of this year that TSPC opened a new sexual conduct investigation, and the district placed Rist on leave for the second time. But by April, TSPC had dismissed those sexual conduct allegations "for insufficient cause." Rist remained on leave while the district continued its second employment investigation. According to the district, they asked for new information from the attorney for the two students and from TSPC but did not receive anything new.
In June, TSPC issued a 60-day suspension and probation for Rist's "gross neglect of duty." According to the commission's final order, Rist completed a "Prevention and Correction" course and agreed that he'd overstepped his bounds by having too-intimate relationships with the two students.
"He accepts responsibility for his overly personal interactions with some students, better understands where to draw professional boundary lines, and has changed his professional practices accordingly," the TSPC order states.
The commission and Rist's attorney worked out a deal whereby the suspension fell during the summer months, according to the district, preventing the district from taking employment action against him for failing to have a teaching license. Rist returned to work in August.
Attorneys for the two former students filed their lawsuit against both Rist and the district on Sept. 27. Two days later, the district received a new report of "potentially inappropriate conduct" against Rist from a third former student, now graduated.
Rist was placed on leave for a third time on Oct. 2, and the district said it reported the new complaint to Keizer police — but they were informed that "no law enforcement investigation will commence unless there is an allegation of criminal conduct."
At the same time, the district made its report to the TSPC of the third accusation and launched its own investigation into the new complaint. On Oct. 9, the district said it made a report to Oregon DHS of the new complaint.