School district works to address fallout from teacher misconduct scandal

Published 11:52 am Monday, November 17, 2025

A pair of Mercer Island School District (MISD) student representatives to the board and Superintendent Fred Rundle have addressed high school students’ reactions and opinions and what the district has done since the news broke of a former Mercer Island High School (MIHS) teacher’s alleged sexual misconduct.

During a report from the student reps — who both attend MIHS — at the Nov. 13 school board meeting, junior rep Brody Newcomer noted that the MIHS culture has shifted since the allegations of teacher Curtis Johnston came to light in an InvestigateWest article. He said that some students feel betrayed, angry, confused and sad.

In the MIHS realm, both Newcomer and senior rep Lucy Dorer explained at the meeting that The Islander newspaper and KMIH 88.9 The Bridge radio station have reported extensively on the situation; student members of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC) have increased education to students, and they also sit on the new Student Safety and Well-Being Committee; high schoolers plus younger students attended a school meeting that featured a question-and-answer session about how the district handles cases of suspected sexual assault and more; and the MIHS Student Senate will be hosting a similar Q&A soon.

Newcomer thinks they have to do the work to move on from the situation, and he’s optimistic that they can do so, he said at the meeting.

When it came time for Rundle’s report at the meeting, he said that the district is continuing a lot of work, including an MIHS day off on Nov. 10 to allow “our MIHS certificated and classified staff to work together to reaffirm the school culture we all envision,” he wrote in a letter to the school community. He said in the letter that they would work closely with KCSARC and Mercer Island Youth and Family Services (YFS) on that day.

On Dec. 8, the district encourages parents and caregivers of K-12 students to participate in a program titled “Moving Beyond Stranger Danger: Personal Safety Conversations for Today’s Youth” that will occur from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Mercer Island Community and Events Center. YFS and MI Parent Edge are collaborating with KCSARC on the program.

Rundle recently attended a Washington Schools Risk Management Pool symposium and learned about the Praesidium Academy’s safety equation, which notes that a safe environment comes about through policies, screening and selection, training, monitoring and supervision, internal feedback systems, consumer participation, responding and administration practices.

“We’ve been using the term that we actually took from a gun violence prevention seminar that some of us attended a few weeks ago and that is the notion of we’re all ‘on duty.’ And ‘on duty’ is those of us as staff members but certainly our community. And then what is the work we need to do around teaching and learning and training with our students — and it’s not because it’s their responsibility, but we need to equip them with the tools and the resources,” Rundle said.

MISD has begun working on a revamped flowchart for reports that involves contacting Child Protective Services and police, calls for a district investigation, and if there has been sexual misconduct or a boundary violation. The district has also made changes to improve tracking reports and providing better continuity between administrators, superintendents and principals. Rundle also said MISD has built internal and external partnerships with YFS, MI Parent Edge, PTAs, KCSARC, UW/Harborview, Puget Sound Educational Service District, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and more.

Also on tap are certified workshops for MISD administrators through Praesidium, and the district is building a webpage containing frequently asked questions from its PTAs.

“We have to take a step forward and we have that hope and encouragement, and I am hopeful that we’re heading in the right direction and we need to continue to work extremely hard,” Rundle said.

School board director Cristina Martinez said at the meeting that everyone needs to work together as a community during the painful situation where trust was broken.

Regarding the Student Safety and Well-Being Committee, which held its first meeting on Nov. 4, the group will include 30 members, including students, parents, staff, administrators, community leaders and external partners, according to Rundle’s letter to the school community last month. A formal report from the meeting has not yet been released.

In the letter, Rundle said the committee will address preventing staff and adult misconduct; reviewing curriculum and education the district uses to teach students how to protect themselves and advocate for their peers; evaluating current policies and procedures to identify ways to strengthen how the district responds when staff misconduct or related concerns are reported and more.