PORTLAND, Oregon — Portland Public Schools' employees are claiming sexual harassment is common throughout the school district. Earlier this week, Malak Elkher, a PPS custodian quit her job while speaking during a school board meeting. She cited sexual harassment as the reason.
Elkher worked for the school district for a month, and claimed she faced sexual harassment at two schools. The first instance was at Jackson Middle School, where Elkher said another custodian continually asked her to come to his car during breaks. In an email sent to the school district, Elkher said he would ask her to smoke cigarettes.
She told her supervisor of the harassment, who allegedly brought the issue to her manager. But Elkher said her manager told her not to get HR involved and said they would resolve the issue in-house.
But the harassment continued.
"So every day I go to different break rooms, teachers break rooms, hiding away from him," Elkher said.
Eventually, Elkher emailed HR for the school district. A PPS spokeswoman said the district received Elkher’s email on June 22. An investigation began immediately. The spokeswoman said an interview happened with Elkher on June 23.
At Elkher’s request, the district transferred her to a different school — Lincoln High School.
But Elkher said she encountered the same problem, as an older supervisor began to ask her out on dates to the movies.
"He kept asking, and asking and asking and asking and asking,” Elkher said. “Like not once a day. A lot of times."
PPS said Elkher’s claims are under investigation. They said the district moved quickly once it heard of the allegations.
In a statement, PPS said ‘it will continue to actively and thoroughly investigate any and all reports of sexual harassment.’
Another custodian and union steward, Gabe Penk, said he’s heard of numerous instances of sexual harassment from female custodians.
"Especially in the last several months people have been coming forward, talking about the sexual harassment they've been facing,” Penk said. “Repeated comments from other custodians. From supervisors, asking them out repeatedly."
District officials said they asked Penk to meet four times, but have yet to hear back.
Another former custodian, named Annika Pedersen, said via text message that she dealt with sexual harassment while working for PPS. She said a co-worker at Odyssey Middle School acted like she was dumb, because she was a young woman.
Pedersen notified her manager and begged to be transferred to another school. Eventually, she was transferred but also had her schedule changed. When she told her manager that she was taking classes during the morning and would affect her schedule, she was fired the next day.
Custodians aren’t the only district employees who voiced concern of sexual harassment. Teachers have also complained.
"There are multiple members right now that we are advocating for with sexual harassment cases," Vice President of the Portland Association of Teachers Jacque Dixon said.
A special education teacher filed a complaint through the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. The complaint said a co-worker would touch her shoulder, arms and head without consent. The woman alleges this happened from January 2022 until November 2022.
In another case, a teacher at Kellogg Middle School alleged the district repeatedly failed to address harassment, and disciplined the victim for reporting harassment.
"It's sending a message that a culture of silence is just the norm," Dixon said.
At the school board meeting, a union representative recounted a story from another female custodian. That woman said a co-worker would take pictures of her without her consent. He also allegedly made inappropriate comments about female students.
The district found those claims founded.