Richardson Responds to Question About Her Handling of 8-Year-Old's Sexual Assault and Other Blasts From Her Past
In a recent Salem-Keizer school board candidate forum, the first that Cynthia Richardson has attended since the report came out from Oregon Catalyst, Richardson was asked, ostensibly by the father of the sexual assault victim and author of the Oregon Catalyst article, about her role in the situation. See her response below.
The audio is sometimes questionable, but I transcribed what Richardson says in this footnote.1
She again victim-blames the little girl for not screaming or calling attention to her assault and attempts to cover for her perspective by saying that’s what her granddaughters were told to do. That seems insensitive and lacking awareness, especially for the district’s leader for equity work.
There were no specifics as to what those “next steps” were or could have been, and it’s unclear what she means by it “not work[ing] out” but makes sure to pivot to her activist group’s desired message of “more counselors, more social workers, more psychologists”.
In previous articles, I’ve called out other areas in more recent history and how Richardson acted as a leader in those situations, but thanks to some tips and some deeper digging, it appears there are a number of concerning situations where Richardson had a less-than-ideal response to handling situations.
1997-1998 - Assistant Principal at McKay High School
While he was a freshman at McKay High School in the 97-98 school year, Christopher Papke had a run-in with then Assistant Principal Cynthia Richardson.
“I was attacked and physically assaulted in the hall… I figured if I didn’t fight back I’d be good.”
Richardson was responsible for dealing with the assault. “Cynthia claimed there was security video showing me fighting but refused to show it to me. She also didn’t question any of the other people in the area.” Richardson suspended Papke from school.
Years later, Papke would get more salt in the wound, “my uncle got a job working maintenance. He said there were no cameras in McKay, only on the outside, and this [was] during a time when security measures had been increased.”
In light of Richardson’s candidacy for the school board and his personal experience with her, Papke has tried to warn people.
2006 - Principal at McKay High School
KATU covered a story about a controversy at McKay High School while Richardson was principal. There was an assignment for students who had older siblings that had graduated from McKay, where they were supposed to bring in a photo of the McKay graduate doing whatever work they were doing now, to post on a bulletin board.
One student brought a photo of her brother, a U.S. Marine on deployment overseas, holding his service rifle.
“However, the principal of the school, Cynthia Richardson, would not allow the picture to go up because of the school's zero tolerance policy on weapons.”
KATU, when the media was apparently a little more honest, noted in their article that Richardson’s determination didn’t line up with district policy, “If you look at the school policy pertaining to weapons, there is no word about pictures of weapons.”
KATU also noted the inconsistency of her application, seeing as how the mascot for McKay is a Scotsman carrying a sword. “‘He has a sword. (That is) so true. We might have to revisit that,’ said Richardson when KATU News asked her about the mascot's imagery.” Side note, this was in 2006, the sword-wielding Scotsman is still on display at McKay in 2023.
The controversy went viral. According to a follow-up article by KATU (now gone from KATU’s website but found on Archive.org), “the story sparked a wave of controversy that has since spread across the nation.”
It spread so far that, according to KATU, it came to the attention of national talk radio. “‘...who is offering his life in sacrifice for dim wits like this principal so she can continue to meander through life as a meaningless, worthless educator,’ Rush Limbaugh said during one of his shows this week.”
Richardson denied any negative intention or anti-military stance, but the pressure on the school and the district caused the then-superintendent to step in to negotiate a compromise (again on Archive.org). “Now school district officials have approved the display of another picture of her brother that shows him holding a weapon, but has a focal point of a young Iraqi boy wearing a Marine t-shirt.”
2007 - Principal at McKay High School
McKay was among a list of 13 schools “listed on a state ‘watch list’ because of safety issues” according to a report by KATU. “To make the state watch list, Oregon schools have to expel more than 1 percent of their students for violence, use of weapons or criminal behaviors.”
KATU noted, “Schools that meet those criteria for three years in a row are labeled as ‘persistently dangerous.’ This year [2007] in Oregon, only McKay High School in Salem got that label.” And they’d been listed for the previous two years, as well, making this the third time.
Despite the listing being a black eye on the school and district, which also carried some mandated notices to parents, giving them the opportunity to transfer their child to a safer school should they wish, Richardson wouldn’t take an opportunity to recognize that she needed to change anything, being the leader of the school.
“‘We are not going to change what we are doing,’ said McKay Principal Cynthia Richardson. ‘We are not going to lie. We are being persistent about removing students from our school that cannot follow our rules.’"
This is especially interesting now given that the focus of the district’s equity work, at least in part, is on disproportionate punishment of students of color — with an appearance in the article by Richardson.
Contrast what she said then as Principal to what she said as Director of student equity, “…white educators still have blind spots around students from other cultures that can cause them to see those students as misbehaving” Richardson said in 2020, according to the Salem Reporter. “‘The majority of our staff is white. The majority of them have not dealt with or worked with the cultures that they are having to teach. They don’t understand the need and why students behave or why they bring their cultural characteristics to the classroom,’ [Richardson] said.”
Richardson will say whatever she wants to fit whatever the particular need is. She’ll change the past, unilaterally reinterpret policy, and move the goalposts to wherever she needs to. We can’t trust her or anything she says.
Vote, and make it a good one!
Transcript of video:
Thank you. I do remember your call. I remember it was late (unintelligible) in the after-hours — I was on my way to church, and I just stopped in the parking lot because I couldn’t believe your story. And I’m sorry if I didn’t answer the way you felt that I really cared, but I have a granddaughter that’s in the third grade and when you said that she didn’t — she didn’t holler — I mean they’re in a classroom, and this happened in a classroom, so it didn’t mean that I thought that was the only thing she should do. I was just shocked, because that’s what we trained our grandchildren, if anything happens to you, you immediately start asking for help. Umm, I, I, I just, umm, I felt your pain, and I felt the pain of your daughter, as well, but I did take the next steps that I could take in order to follow up on it.
First of all, I made sure I took time to hear you and to find out the specific, uh, situation so that I would know where to take it next in order for us to handle it. And I’m sorry it did not work out, uh, and, um, yes, we need, um, more counselors, more social workers, more psychologists, um, when things like that happen, so that the kids can get the help that they need. Thank you.