ST. HELENS, Ore. — Anger and outrage spilled out on to the streets outside St. Helens High School on Thursday morning as students walked out of class, upset with how the district handled the police investigation involving choir teacher Eric Stearns, knowing of the investigating but still allowing him to teach. St. Helens police also arrested former math teacher, Mark Collins in Beaverton on Tuesday on three counts of sex abuse, involving a minor.
"I think people are going to listen, especially since students are getting so involved in it," said junior Avlene Moore, who also organized the walkout. "I just wanted everyone to come together and just protest about what's right and just make change in our community."
St. Helens acting police chief Joseph Hogue said police first learned of Stearns after a tip came into the Safe Oregon tip line, mentioning a TikTok video by creator dougweaverart.
"It alluded to a teacher at a high school, last name of Stearns, who was involved in some inappropriate behavior," Hogue said. "That initial post led to a bunch more interviews with people who were involved with the TikTok video or commenting on the TikTok video. That second name of Collins came up as well."
Detectives scoured the comments of the creator's post and came across several instances alluding to inappropriate behavior. Hogue says detectives contacted those commenting on the videos and learned there were multiple victims accusing Stearns and Collins of sexual abuse.
"Many of these go back four and five years," Hogue said.
According to court documents, Stearns is accused of sexually abusing six minors, identified only by their initials, dating back to 2015 and as late as Jan. 2024.
Court documents for Collins list sex abuse charges with three minors between the years 2017 and 2023.
When detectives learned of the abuse, they submitted a subpoena for the Safe Oregon tip, as well as the personnel files of both Stearns and Collins. Hogue says in Stearns' file, there were multiple mentions of inappropriate behavior between 2019 and 2023.
"They found that much of the information that they got from victims in this case was that the victims had reported some of this information to the school district, and in many cases, they found that there were records of that," Hogue said.
Police say the district was notified in mid-October that they were investigating Stearns for sex abuse allegations. A parent, whose child was in Stearns' choir class, told KGW that Stearns remained in his position and was teaching up until he was arrested on Tuesday. Police say the case is still being investigated but wouldn't say if more victims had come forward in the wake of the announcement of the two arrests.
"I think everybody, the superintendent needs to be fired," Christina Baumgardner, a parent protesting with her son outside the school, said. "The school district, they need a whole new school district. Dr. Wagner (St. Helens High School Principal) needs to be fired. These kids need to be safe in this town, and they're not in this school at all."