The case of Mitch Whitehurst, an educator who Portland Public Schools officials allowed to evade years of complaints of sexual misconduct, isn't the only recent instance in which school district officials seem to have discounted student complaints, a former employee says.

Portland Public Schools recently departed paralegal says she read case files that indicate the district also gave student concerns about other employee misconduct or aggression short shrift. Jeanne Windham, who held that role for nearly four years, told The Oregonian/OregonLive this week she would be happy to point district officials to those files.

Windham worked at the district until leaving for a state job this spring. Her first task at Oregon's largest school district, she said, was to read and wrangle a heap of disorganized files in the legal department.

Once she started, she said, she decided to scan and keep anything that had to do with alleged sexual misconduct or aggression toward students.

A file that stood out? That of Whitehurst, the educator at the center of an Oregonian/OregonLive story that has prompted the school board to pledge an independent investigation.

Using school district documents, police records and state investigatory files obtained through public records requests as well as interviews with former students, The Oregonian/OregonLive showed that for years, school and district officials repeatedly protected Whitehurst. They dismissed complaints from girls who said they were subjected to his leering, suggestive remarks or requests for oral sex.

District officials, including top lawyers, two human resource directors and at least three principals, downplayed complaints from students and staff as isolated instances, rumors or misunderstandings, it showed.

Windham told The Oregonian/Oregonlive the district files contain red flags about other employees that also seem to have been dismissed.

Windham said she agreed to talk The Oregonian/OregonLive this week because the school district hasn't seemed interested in acting on her concerns, which she relayed to her boss as well as Interim Superintendent Bob McKean during an exit interview.

Windham said when she read the Whitehurst file in fall of 2013, she went straight to her boss, school district lawyer Stephanie Harper.

Windham said she told Harper she was horrified by how the district had handled complaints about him and asked if he still worked for the district.

Harper said yes.

Windham said she thought Harper was just as upset as she was. She remembered Harper saying in the future the district would believe children. The two had a long conversation about how the district fell short when investigating sexual misconduct and needed better training, she said.

Yet, Windham said, nothing changed.

Asked why she thought that was, Windham simply said, "Well obviously it wasn't a priority was it?"

"(Harper) was well aware of how upset I was about this particular case," Windham said. "The file reflects what (the) article said: Everywhere along the way he was given the benefit of the doubt."

Harper did not respond to an email request Thursday for comment for this article.

Whitehurst was terminated in 2015 after he offensively poked a clothed male coworker at Faubion K-8 School. The coworker called police and Whitehurst ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment.

Windham said she felt "it defied belief" that in 2001 the district would send a memo to a teacher accused by a student of sexual misconduct and more or less say, "Well you both seem credible, and I can see how she might have misunderstood you."

"My background is working with victims of domestic violence and child abuse, and I really couldn't believe it," said Windham, who previously was president of Domestic Violence Education and Services in Montana. Her education is also in forensic psychology and during her studies, she worked with sex offenders, she said.

The memo she referred to was written by school district lawyer Maureen Sloane, who has since retired, in response to the first written complaint about Whitehurst that the school district received from a student.

The student, Marshall High senior Rose Soto, reported in fall 2001 that Whitehurst tried for almost a year to date her. She said he told her he liked her pants because he could easily unzip them. She told The Oregonian/OregonLive this summer the experience of being disbelieved was demoralizing and that Whitehurst continued to hit on her after the district let him off the hook.

The memo concluding the investigation into Soto's complaint that enraged Windham was signed by now retired Marshall High Principal Greg Wolleck and written by Sloane.

It said in part: "Both the student's allegations and your denial are credible." And "it is certainly possible that the student in question misunderstood your actions." And "I ... believe in the future you will be extremely cautious."

Whitehurst was returned to work without restrictions and taught for 13 more years, despite mounting complaints.

Sloane has declined to comment about the matter. Wolleck, who many years later became the district's unofficial contact for all sexual misconduct complaints, would not agree to be interviewed but did answer some questions by email.

"I appreciate that the response was not satisfying for the student, but it was the best outcome with documentation possible at the time," Wolleck wrote to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

The district did refer the matter to Oregon's teacher licensing agency, but officials there took no action and won't say why the agency dropped the matter.

Soto has said she doesn't understand why no one from the state ever interviewed her. After Whitehurst had been criminally convicted of harassing a coworker, the licensing agency revoked his license for sexual misconduct with a two other students in the 1980s.

One of those women had twice reported him, in 2008 and again in 2012, but the district didn't pass the matter on to the licensing agency. The licensing agency learned of that later when reviewing the district's files on Whitehurst after the poked employee's complaint.

Read The Oregonian/OregonLive's Benefit of The Doubt investigation here:

— Bethany Barnes

Got a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.com