NEWPORT, Ore. (KATU) — A Lincoln County School District investigation has determined that the use of the N-word in a text message by an Eddyville Charter School principal is “protected speech.” The message was sent off-duty to the school employee to a contractor discussing possible repair work at the school.
Joseph Conchelos, the parent who filed the complaint, provided KATU with a screenshot of the text exchange, also cited in the investigation and attributed to Eddyville Charter School administrative assistant Missy Endicott.
Conchelos says the messages were forwarded to him by the contractor he has worked for in the past. The screenshots he provided show Endicott texting the contractor, “So exactly, nobody wants to work for free,” to which the contractor responds, “Well, it’s my company and I make money, but not necessarily in that capacity.” The school administrator then responds, “Haha, right… I think other than that part of the project, it’s super straightforward and easy… (curse word deleted) even I can put up siding… I’m a good (n-word) worker.”
Conchelos says the messages were forwarded to him in April, but he decided not to report it until the end of the school year to protect his 10-year-old daughter, who was enrolled at that school, from retaliation. When the school year ended, he began reaching out to the charter school’s administrative offices and the school district. When he received no response to several voicemails, he finally contacted the Oregon Department of Education and received a call back from the superintendent of Eddyville Charter School, who forwarded the complaint to the Lincoln County School District for investigation.
The investigation, which concluded on July 31, found that school staff violated policy by failing to forward Conchelos’ messages to the superintendent. However, Endicott was ultimately cleared of any violation of school policy when she sent the text message outside of her work hours.
“Based on the clear and convincing standard, I have concluded that Eddyville Charter School violated ACB policy by failing to follow the communications process outlined in the proceeding. Although the defendant, Missy Endicott, used the (N-word) which would violate the bias incident in the school context, the comment was made off-duty, not directed against the school or student, and is protected speech,” the investigation states.
The investigation found that Endicott justified her use of the word.
It was noted that Conchelos and his wife had called in the past to inquire about the school’s anti-racism and hate speech policies and that those policies had not been provided to them.
“I have made several calls due to other incidents at the school involving racism within the student body,” Conchelos said in an interview with KATU.
He is convinced that school staff deliberately ignored his messages about alleged racist incidents.
“Only when it came to racism, for all other issues I called the school about, my messages got through and I got called back,” he said.
He said the previous incidents involved other students using racial slurs. He mentioned that when he called to find out how the school normally handles such incidents, he was told that the school could not give him any information about another student’s disciplinary actions.
“I said I don’t want to talk about other students. I want to know about your politics,” he said.
The investigation revealed that the policy was not given to him.
Those incidents, the text messages and the investigation’s conclusions have led Conchelos to believe the school and district are not cracking down hard enough on racism. He is calling for Endicott to be fired and says he will continue to speak out about the incident until that happens.
“The fact that she would throw that word out there in a text message, especially when it’s about business matters or construction projects at the school, tells me that not only is it part of her vocabulary, but that she’s very comfortable using it,” he said. “That someone would consider the use of that word by a school administrator to be protected speech is truly unbelievable to me.”
Conchelos eventually withdrew his daughter from the charter school she has attended for four years. He said the racist incidents were a big part of the reason, but noted there were other, unrelated factors as well, including her age.
“Regarding the text message, Ms. Endicott reports that it was about the siding dispute and states, ‘I am not racist’ and the use of the (N-word) means ‘I can be a good worker.’ Additionally, while she reports other profanities within the longer text conversation, this word was a ‘poor choice of words among friends’ in the context of the school’s siding. Ms. Endicott reports that there is a legal dispute with the contractor and believes he may have sent the text message to Mr. Conchelos in retaliation for a dispute over the amount of payment related to the contract work at the school,” the investigation states.
When KATU contacted the school district about the investigation, it was referred to the superintendent of Eddyville Charter School for comment. Eric Clendenin took over as superintendent in late April following the investigation into Endicott’s text messages. He responded to KATU’s calls and emails but did not answer questions about the incident and sent a written statement saying, “We have no comment at this time.”
Endicott’s school email address does not accept emails from KATU, which were eventually bounced. KATU left messages on their office phone number but received no response.
