New claim lists more sexual allegations against candidate Marc Thielman | Education

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Another Alsea schools employee has come forward with allegations that former Superintendent and Republican candidate for Oregon governor Marc Thielman was sexually inappropriate with her throughout her tenure at the school district.

The Alsea School District received a wrong claim notice this month — often a precursor to a lawsuit — on behalf of former Assistant Superintendent Katie Sapp, who plans to assert claims against the school district, Thielman and other employees for creating a hostile work environment, which included sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation.

In a letter to this news group, Thielman’s lawyer says the allegations are politically motivated. Representatives from the school board and school district could not be reached for comment.

Sapp is represented by Nathan R. Rietmann of Salem-based Rietmann Law, who is also representing Alsea elementary principal Shannon Rice, who is on leave and whose contract will expire at the end of this school year. Rice is suing the school district for more than $3.7 million with similar allegations.

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Like Rice’s suit, Sapp’s claim alleges Thielman made inappropriate comments but went even further, including showing up at off-site conferences and proposing her for sex.

The harassment was so incessant throughout the course of Sapp’s nine-year employment, Sapp switched up her work attire from “normal female business attire to wearing baggier clothing that obscured her body as much as possible,” the wrong claim alleges.

It also mentioned an instance at a conference in Newport in 2019 in which Thielman allegedly asked Sapp if she would have sex with him if they were both single. While Sapp informally reported the incident to several people within the school district, she said she feared taking legal action because it would make her work life that much more difficult.

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In the latter years of her employment, Thielman would block the door whenever Sapp was trying to leave his office, not letting her pass until she held his hand, the wrong claim alleges.

Thielman’s attorney, Tyler Smith of Canby, questioned both Sapp’s and Rice’s motivations, noting that Reitmann is the same attorney who represented the Coalition of School Administrators when it tried to “retaliate” against Thielman for speaking out against mask mandates and school closures during the height of the pandemic.

“You should know that you appear to have been played, or are assisting in the intentional attack,” Smith wrote on April 1.

Smith also suggested Mid-Valley Media ask Reitmann who is paying his clients to file these accusations.

In response, Reitmann said by email: “No one is paying Ms. Sapp to assert claims. The only party compensating Ms. Sapp at this time is the Alsea School District.”

Other male employees within the district followed Thielman’s lead of disrespect toward women, the claim alleges.

“The culture set by Superintendent Thielman set the tone for the entire District and resulted in increasingly misogynistic and sexist behavior by other male staff, which simply became the norm, and a term and condition of employment,” the wrong claim alleges.

For example, one employee harassed Sapp at work by screaming expletives at her and refused to take direction from her, according to the claim. Another refused to collaborate with Sapp at work because of her sex.

Eventually, after fruitlessly trying to get her concerns addressed, including taking them to a school board member, Sapp was told by Thielman her “only hope” was to resign, according to the the claim.

Thielman was willing to arrange a settlement agreement, the claim alleges, “in exchange for her acknowledging that he had never asked if she would have sex” with him.

In November, Sapp did sign a settlement agreement with the district that would pay out the rest of her contract and cover her insurance. Sapp said she was under the impression board members knew why she was leaving but later found out Thielman had told them it was for health reasons, according to the claim.

Sapp emailed an official complaint to the board Feb. 15 against Thielman and the entire school board questioning the legalities of the agreement. Since then, the wrong notice reads, “the Alsea School Board has remained incredibly hostile toward Ms. Sapp and been working to damage her personal and professional reputation in numerous ways.”

Joanna Mann (she/her) covers education for Mid-Valley Media. She can be contacted at 541-812-6076 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter via @joanna_mann_.

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