It’s called “passing the trash,” and it occurs when school officials allow a teacher suspected of child abuse to move on without telling potential new employers of the teacher’s problems. It’s a problem in Oregon, and it must be stopped.

The Oregonian newspaper highlighted the problem in 2017 when it reported on the case of Mitch Whitehurst, a teacher who had multiple complaints about sexual misconduct lodged against him over his 32-year career in Portland, though none was passed from one school to the next when he moved to escape his past.

In some cases, school officials did not take the complaints seriously; in at least one, Whitehurst moved on before an investigation could be completed and the file was closed. In all cases, it was students, and sometimes even teachers, who suffered from Whitehurst’s behavior.

A memo from Legislative Counsel Dexter Johnson to state Sen. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay, lays out a series of potential changes to Oregon law that would help prevent the problem from recurring. Among them:

• Redefine “sexual conduct” to line up with what the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission uses. That standard requires less proof than what’s used today.

• Move dealing with the problem from the Department Human Services or law enforcement to TSCP. The memo notes that DHS works from the assumption that caregivers are the abusers and is not set up to deal well with noncaregivers. Police are similarly limited to charges that, if substantiated, are violations of state law.

• Change the law to prevent schools and school districts from suppressing information about complaints even before an investigation is completed. This is a big one, for it’s the mechanism that allows for “passing the trash” in the first place.

There’s much more in the recommendations, but these three, and particularly the last one, would make an excellent start toward ensuring students are safe in Oregon schools.