Parents, students respond to controversial Churchill High School health assignment | News

EUGENE, Ore. — The Eugene School District 4J School Board held its first meeting in the wake of a controversial health assignment given in a Churchill High School class on Wednesday, March 15.

Some parents and community members had the opportunity to speak. Individuals who were selected had a couple of minutes to share their thoughts on anything involving the school board, and most spent their time talking about the assignment.

4J Superintendent Andy Dey made a statement in response to the incident, telling audience members the district would be reviewing the curriculum.

“Ultimately we rely on the professional judgment of our educators to utilize the curriculum as tools in their classroom,” Dey said. “We have found that in this case, there was inadequate oversight and support around the standards required and the best methods to meet those standards by relying on supplemental lessons rather than following the Our Whole Lives curriculum verbatim.”

Emily Ashton is a senior at Churchill High. She has the health teacher in question, Kirk Miller, in a strength and conditioning class. Given how close she is to the situation, she felt compelled to talk at the board meeting. 

“I think it would be incredible if someone from the school who’s not a student would take the students’ side, would take the parents’ side, would say they want us to be safe,” Ashton said.

Since Wednesday’s meeting, Justin McCall, one of the parents who spoke, has filed recall petitions for the superintendent, principal of Churchill, and various members of the Board. He listed his reason as “Admitted derelict of duty, resulting in the verbal sexual abuse of minor children.”

At this time, no changes have been made to the staff at Churchill.