 Students, teachers united against reporting changes 
 
 By ERIC A. HOWALD 
 
 Of the Keizertimes 
 
 An expansion of mandatory reporting policies in the Salem-Keizer School District isn’t sitting well with teachers or students at McNary High School. Teachers were notified in the second week of October that they would need to take an additional mandatory reporting training online and, by early last week, teachers, students and even parents were challenging the new rules in private and through petition and protest. Schott also initiated an online petition at change.org (http://bit.ly/2y1ayDY) that has garnered more than 500 signatures. Prior to the changes, SKSD teachers were required to report incidences of suspected neglect or any type of abuse to the Department of Human Services, but the new guidelines expand reporting to most sex-related issues. New instances that would require reporting include: a student inquiring about birth control options after admitting to sex with a partner; reports of a pregnancy; a student confiding in a teacher after being kicked out of his home for divulging a sexually active, same-sex relationship. The training materials suggest that the new guidelines were put in place based on current child abuse reporting laws and “conversation with community partners who are experts on the issue.” 
 
 A spokesperson for the district, Lillian Govus, said, “This is not a change in policy, merely a clarification. As mandatory reporters, we simply give the information to the correct agencies, but it is up to their discretion whether action would be taken. “We are erring on the side of caution.” 
 
 Oregon law says that sex under the age of 18 is considered abuse and teachers have to report their students, according to the district. In response to the new guidelines regarding inquiries to teachers about birth control, Dougall and Schott pointed out that students could walk into Planned Parenthood and receive birth control without parental knowledge. “He just got kicked out of his home, and now he’s potentially dealing with a investigation? Does the student have to deal with it or the parents or does the district just let it go because it’s too hard to deal with? He’s already vulnerable and at a high risk for suicide,” the teacher said. It is harder to tell what would happen to the students that the teachers report on could. “People’s careers are on the line,” she said.
– Teachers and staff of an Oregon public school district are disturbed at a district rule requiring them to report any student sexual activity—whether they know about it for a fact or just suspect it, and even if it involves their own children—to law enforcement or state officials. According to the Salem-Keizer district, the requirement is necessary under the state's mandatory reporting and child abuse laws—all district employees are mandatory reporters and as such are required to report when they have "reasonable cause" to suspect a child is being abused—but the Statesman Journal reports that most other school districts in the state don't consider consensual sexual activity between teens to be something teachers are required to report. More than 1,300 people have signed an online petition asking the school board chairman to put an end to the requirement. The superintendent explains the policy is not new, but the district recently added a training session dealing with situations employees would be required to report. Some of those situations included things like a 15-year-old confiding that she's having sex with her boyfriend and needs birth control, a 14-year-old telling a teacher his parents kicked him out over a same-sex relationship that has turned sexual, or a teacher's own 17-year-old son confessing his 16-year-old girlfriend is pregnant. Employees and students alike say they're concerned that under this requirement, students will lose trusted confidantes at school and will have a harder time getting access to information about safe sex. A district spokesperson tells KATU she has been in touch with a legislator about the law's interpretation, and adds to Newsweek that the district is "erring on the side of caution."