Exclusive: Steilacoom teacher warned to stop touching students. He didn’t, records show
A Steilacoom math teacher being sued for inappropriately touching a girl was warned about his “problematic” behavior with students in 2018, and administrators gave him a refresher on sexual harassment policies and maintaining professional boundaries.
Within three months of the warning, high school teacher Eric Garrett was again being internally investigated for inappropriately touching female students, including one instance where he allegedly slid his hand beneath a student’s skirt, squeezed her bare thigh and said, “Good job.”
That encounter resulted in the now 19-year-old woman filing a lawsuit in July against Steilacoom Historical School District and Garrett, alleging the math teacher sexually harassed her and the district failed to report the incident to law enforcement as required by law.
The district has said it cannot comment on pending litigation, but it has asked the court to dismiss the case. Its attorneys argued the district wasn’t required to report the incident to police because it determined Garrett touched the student’s thigh but it was “in a non-sexual fashion,” records say.
Garrett, 60, was placed on administrative leave in November after hundreds of students organized a walk-out.
Attempts by The News Tribune to reach his attorney, Mark O’Donnell, were not successful.
Garrett has been complained about, investigated and told to stop behaving inappropriately with students before. He was ordered in 2010 to stop bringing students to his home for personal tutoring but continued to do so for at least another decade, according to records obtained by The News Tribune.
Two female students complained in 2018 that he inappropriately touched them and made them feel uncomfortable. A fellow teacher wrote numerous letters and filed several complaints against Garrett detailing his alleged actions toward her and various students. The teacher’s complaints included him creating workplace hostility, touching female students and verbally abusing male students.
An attorney specializing in workplace investigations looked into those allegations and found Garrett did not intentionally violate any school policies.
“While there continues to be no finding of intentional misconduct on your part, the investigator did make extensive findings regarding your conduct and practices that he found to be problematic,” Paul Harvey, executive director of student achievement, wrote to Garrett in an Oct. 2, 2018, letter.
The investigator found Garrett touched students on their arms, shoulder or back but determined that Garrett did not do so for sexual purposes. Garrett admitted to talking about students behind their backs with other students, “which he explained as part of his effort to get to know the students so that he can build rapport with them,” according to the investigation.
Garrett said he was selective about which students could make up tests or take work home based on his opinion of their “integrity.” He was frank about ignoring the district’s “boundary invasion policies” and continued to tutor select students at his home, and admitted that he made “pointed comments” to mostly male students, including referring to them as “idiot.”
The outside investigator also expressed concern about Garrett’s “outdated and unfounded” views on gender roles after the teacher talked about how boys can withstand his barbed comments because they don’t internalize things as much as girls and that boys occasionally get lower grades because they do not complete assignments as consistently.
The investigator could not verify that Garrett called a seventh grade student a “fat (expletive)“ while on the baseball field, but Garrett admitted he uses profanity in front of students.
Records obtained so far by The News Tribune do not indicate whether Garrett was disciplined for any of that behavior.
Letters from the district to Garrett after the 2018 investigation advised him to stop touching students, refrain from commenting on their appearance, treat students equally, stop making demeaning comments to and about students and cease private tutoring at his home.
Garrett’s “actions are, particularly in combination, subject to being seriously misconstrued in ways that could subject both you and the District to liability; interfere with student learning; and generally serve little or no legitimate pedagogical purpose,” Harvey wrote to the math teacher in October 2018.
In a letter to the parents of the girl who complained that he touched her and made her feel uncomfortable, district officials said an investigation found Garrett did touch the student but his conduct didn’t warrant discipline. Instead, they told the parents Garrett would get a refresher on district policies.
“While Mr. Garrett’s actions were found by the investigator to be well-intentioned, the district recognizes the impact on students when well-intentioned efforts miss their mark,” Susanne Beauchaine, executive director for student services, wrote in the Oct. 1, 2018, letter.
The girl’s parents tried to appeal the decision with Steilacoom High School, saying Garrett “has not stopped his behaviors and is a danger to minors.”
It appeared there was confusion between Garrett and his superiors about what behavioral changes needed to be made.
In a conversation with Beauchaine Oct. 25, 2018, Beauchaine expressed concern that there had been two students complaints about Garrett within the same calendar year, and the math teacher said he was confused by the continued allegations.
“This investigation bothers me. It makes me wonder — do I just not get close to these kids?” Garrett asked Beauchaine, according to her notes of the conversation.
Her response: “Yes — don’t touch students.”
The district was again investigating Garrett by January 2019 for “unprofessional and inappropriate conduct” during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years, records say. The investigation included interviews with at least nine students and one staff member. Accusations leveled against Garrett included that he touched female students, that he placed his hand on one girl’s upper thigh, that he placed an arm around another girl’s waist and that he continued to have physical contact with students even after being directed not to three months prior.
The district has not yet provided The News Tribune with records related to the 2019 investigation, or for any complaints or investigations involving Garrett prior to 2018.
In a March 2019 letter to the mother of the girl whose thigh was touched, officials said Garrett “likely” placed his hand on the student’s thigh and that they would take “appropriate disciplinary action.” No details were offered.
Soon after, the girl’s mother retained attorney Thomas Balerud. He penned a letter to principal Michael Miller demanding that the school call 911 within 48 hours to report the inappropriate touching to police and to place Garrett on leave.
“I’ve been hired to help protect a student of yours, from a teacher of yours. Kids shouldn’t need lawyers for that. Should be your school’s obligation. Unfortunately it looks like your school has abrogated this basic duty when it comes to one specific teacher, Mr. Garrett,” the attorney wrote.
Steilacoom police were alerted to Garrett’s alleged sexual harassment of the girl in 2019. The district again reported the incident sometime after the lawsuit was filed in July. The case was forwarded to prosecutors in August.
Prosecutors declined to file charges of second-degree sexual misconduct with a minor, a gross misdemeanor, because the statute of limitations of two years has run out.
The outcome of the lawsuit is pending.
Garrett has been teaching with Steilacoom Historical School District since 1997, first at Pioneer Middle School and then at the high school. He also has worked as the baseball coach, head of the math department and summer school teacher.
