Former Athlete, Now a QVSD Coach, Tells Board She Experienced Weekes's Massages Herself

The Quillayute Valley School District Board of Directors heard new firsthand testimony Tuesday night, as a district graduate who now works as a substitute for the district and a high school assistant cheer coach told the board she personally experienced the kind of touching described in evidence at the Larson v. QVSD trial.

The meeting at the Forks High School Library was the board's first regular session since the district paid $765,834.77 to close the Larson case and since a July 15 closed-door special meeting that ended with no action.

Speaking during public comment, the coach said she ran track in the district as a middle schooler and that the ways former head coach Brian Weekes stretched and put his hands on her as a 13-year-old "were not okay." 

She described a later incident in high school when, after she mentioned hip pain at practice, Weekes offered a massage, had her lie down on the track, and rubbed around the back side of her hip. 

She said coaches Pam Gale and Kari Larson quickly crossed the track, interrupted the massage, and reestablished boundaries between Weekes and the high school athletes.

When the board offered to hear her account in executive session, she declined, saying she wanted the public to hear her story.

She told the board she was living out of state during the federal trial but would have testified had she been here. 

She also said she personally knows other former athletes who were prepared to testify but backed out, telling her they feared retaliation against themselves and their families in town from both the district and the community, though she said she was not accusing the board of creating that fear.

Their reluctance to come forward, she said, does not mean the conduct did not happen. "I witnessed it," she told the board.

A federal jury in Tacoma found the district liable in April for subjecting former assistant cross-country coach Kari Larson to a hostile work environment, awarding $250,000 under the Washington Law Against Discrimination. 

The same jury declined to find the district or Weekes liable for retaliation and cleared Athletic Director and Title IX Coordinator Kyle Weakley of negligent supervision and retention claims.

Demands for Action, and a Board Response

Shannon Gaydeski returned to the podium to demand the board complete its reopened investigation of Weekes, which she said began April 20, within the 30-day window she cited under board policy 5011P. 

She called on the district to fire Weekes for cause, file a report with the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and refuse to let him resign or retire before the process concludes, citing Washington's 2004 "don't pass the trash" law, RCW 28A.400.301. 

She also flagged that the district's anonymous reporting link on its website was broken, routing to an administrator login.

Pam Gale put the total public cost of the case at more than $1 million, a figure she said includes the judgment, the district's legal expenses, and what she described as more than $300,000 in administrative leave pay to Weekes over three years.

Wendy Larson, handed the board information on researcher Charol Shakeshaft's book "Organizational Betrayal," on how schools enable and can prevent educator sexual misconduct.

Ann Simpson pitched Team Up Washington, a violence prevention training program for coaches and athletes run by the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, whose sponsors she noted include the Seattle Mariners.

In a departure from the board's usual silence during comment periods, board director Kevin Hinchen addressed the criticism during board reports, saying there is "a big disconnect between the board and the public on what we can do and what we can't do." 

There is much the board legally cannot discuss, he said: "You're thinking we're not being transparent. That's because we can't." Hinchen stated. 

Bond Headed to November Ballot

The board also took consequential business votes. With no opposition voiced, it adopted a resolution placing a $34 million, 25-year bond on the November ballot to replace Forks Middle School. 

District officials said passage would unlock roughly $21 million in state matching funds, money that shrinks by an estimated $5 million to $6 million if the measure slips past this cycle, and keeps county timber dollars flowing to the district, which must carry debt to receive them.

The board awarded the Spartan Fields site work contract to Interwest Construction, the apparent low bidder, on a base bid of $4.353 million plus alternates that include conduit for future field lighting and dugouts for the baseball and softball fields. Turf installation will follow as a separate phase.

The board also approved a Central Washington University "College in the High School" partnership that staff said will let Forks students earn tuition-free college credit, as much as half a bachelor's degree by graduation. 

And it tabled a middle school social studies curriculum adoption, which would replace materials dating to 1997, until August 11 so members can review the books first.