370 Iowa St
Eugene, OR 97402

My son has been physically assaulted at this school by fellow students and there has been minimal intervention. Now, he is being harassed by teaching staff and coming home in tears from adults cruel words. Not ok.

I went to middle school here and recently left after finishing 8th grade. I think it’s a very disappointing school in a lot of ways. I’m a fast learner and tend to be more academically advanced than my peers. This school does nothing about that at all. They have some ways to help kids that are struggling (although clearly not well enough because most people were still doing very poorly) but no way to challenge you or help you at all if you do well. I felt very ignored by the school. Especially in math. Currently it says on here that 24% of students take algebra, but that is outdated and not true. They don’t teach algebra at all. They only have one class in a subject in each grade level and will not let you take anything outside of your grade level. They told me I could go to the high school next door to do advanced math but the administration did nothing to further that and just ignored me. They are really the problem here. I had some great teachers who tried to help me but it was clear the administration was too busy or just didn’t care. Another big problem was the students. There was a lot of mainly homophobic and ableist language that no one did anything about. I told the school about this a few times but they did nothing to try to stop it. I often heard slurs in the hallways or even in classrooms where teachers did nothing. Even at one point there was a homophobic slur in a book we were reading and the teacher didn’t warn anyone and had a student read it out. Although that was really the only problematic teacher I had. Most were good and wanted to help students learn. I had some really great teachers there that tried to help me the best they could, but sadly they were held back by the school. I no longer go to school in this district in part because my time at Cascade has made me lose hope in the administration and their care for students.

The teachers are overworked as with all public teachers I feel safe at this school and in the surrounding community knowing they have a Eugene Police officer there (resource officer) Officer Tester is a person any kid can go to in need to talk to someone, in need of directing info for help in the class room, or if you need a snack lol! Don’t hesitate to ask her any questions that you may have because of her uniform! Bethel school district is so lucky to have her as their resource officer and my hat goes off to officer Tester! Thank you for your service and thank you for keeping Willamette High School, the surrounding schools and the community safe! You are appreciated!