Third-party investigations released Wednesday found Vancouver Public Schools administrators did not appropriately discipline former Hudson’s Bay High School English teacher Shadbreon Gatson or thoroughly investigate allegations of his sexual involvement with multiple students. In a letter sent to families, school board members stated they were releasing the reports to reaffirm the district’s commitment to transparency, accountability and school safety. The investigation into Gatson’s conduct was completed Jan. 28 by the law firm Simmons, Sweeney, Freimund, Smith and Tardif. It details interviews with three students who attended Bay between 2009 and 2015 who said they experienced sexual encounters with Gatson, including on school grounds and at Gatson’s house. The investigator did not look into allegations made by more recent students, the report stated. The letter said the findings have been reported to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s professional practices office, which oversees teacher certification.

The second investigation, completed Tuesday, by the law firm Haggard & Ganson, found the district and Bay’s administrators did not conduct thorough investigations, escalate discipline of Gatson nor effectively share information with officials. The investigators said school administrators failed to spot red flags, including that Gatson lied to cover up his behavior, and they underreacted to his repeated violations of policy. The report stated that had the district done a more complete review, it might have had grounds to fire Gatson in 2013. The report also noted multiple instances since then of Gatson’s behavior that went undisciplined or disciplined too lightly. Gatson resigned, effective Feb. 3, and the district said it would accept his resignation rather than continue to pay him while on administrative leave. The law firm’s investigation into Gatson’s conduct said he resigned rather than submit for an interview. Gatson was arrested Dec. 20 on suspicion of first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor, after a former student, now 27, reported to Bay staff and Vancouver police in early December that she was sexually victimized in 2013 when she was 16, according to court records.

Prosecutors dropped the case Dec. 26 because the statute of limitations had expired. Gatson currently is not facing any criminal charges, court records show. The court records stated that in June 2013, a Bay custodian told the school’s principal, William Oman, and assistant principal, Valerie Seeley, that he interrupted Gatson and the student engaging in sexual intercourse in a band room after hours. During the third-party investigations, Oman and Seeley voluntarily went on administrative leave pending the outcome. The two will return from leave to modified roles for the remainder of the school year, according to Wednesday’s letter. Seeley was Bay’s principal and Oman was the district’s executive director for middle schools when the investigations began.

A district spokeswoman said their new roles will not involve sole supervision of schools or direct oversight of students. They will devote most of the last two months of the school year to administrative work and completing additional training in conducting investigations, identifying concerning behavior and knowing when to escalate reports, spokeswoman Jessica Roberts said in a Thursday email to The Columbian. District officials will determine at the end of the school year what Oman and Seeley’s roles will be next year, Roberts said. The message to families said the two have expressed deep remorse and frustration “that this was missed at the time it occurred.” “We recognize there is a difference between covering something up and not having the right knowledge or systems in place to discover or address it,” the school board said. “We also believe that people evolve and improve in their roles over time. Over the last decade, these administrators have grown through more experience, additional training and stronger processes. There are also very different expectations, systems and support structures in place to better support not only these, but all, administrators. We have faith that if a similar situation presented itself today things would be addressed very differently both by individuals and our systems.” Editor’s note: This story has been updated with the school district’s response about Oman and Seeley’s roles moving forward.