In 2024, Ellensburg High School (EHS) came under federal investigation and public scrutiny for issues surrounding discrimination and rights violations. EHS serves as the main high school for residents of Ellensburg. Upon investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) concluded in December 2024 that the School District had “failed” to protect students from harassment based on sex, race and national origin.

The DOJ stated that “Black, Latino and LGBTQ+ students experienced slurs, taunts and physical assaults based on race, national origin and sex … The district’s insufficient response allowed the harassment to continue and even escalate, denying students equal access to the district’s educational programs.”

However, instead of pursuing further investigation, an agreement was made between the DOJ and the Ellensburg School District in which the district was given a set time frame to implement a variety of changes including the hiring of a third party advisory service, designating a Spanish-speaking liaison for Latino families, creating a new electronic reporting system for instances of discrimination and more. The deadline for many of these changes is April 1.

“Our settlement agreement is more open-ended than most and is designed to make sure we monitor Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) policy/procedure properly,” Troy Tornow, superintendent of the Ellensburg School District, said in an email response to The Observer about the settlement.

Tornow also stated that one of the DOJ’s main findings was that the district did a “lousy” job with outreach to Latino families. The agreement that the DOJ and the Ellensburg School District entered into was a “voluntary resolution agreement,” which means it is up to both parties to ensure the agreement is completed in good faith or further litigation will occur.

In his email, Tornow highlighted “a training component for multiple groups within our district, as well as systems to monitor school climate.” He said that the School Board and staff started these training plans late last year before the DOJ agreement and that they are continuing the training as part of the agreement. 

Mike Rowley, chair of the Ellensburg School Board, added in a separate email, “We are working hard on a new district strategic plan and we feel the steps the district administration has taken are leading the school district in a positive direction.”

The settlement agreement is for three years of monitoring and Tornow said the district will have a 2025-2026 plan in place by the July 1, 2025 deadline, to be submitted to the DOJ.

“Since the events that brought about the investigation … most everyone has moved on to looking at the future and making sure we continue to grow,” Tornow said. 

Student Experiences

Olivia Reiman, a 2022 EHS graduate and current CWU law and justice senior, shared her experience at EHS. “The main reason why I disliked Ellensburg High School was the ‘school board.’ I would say they did not treat their students equally and they didn’t treat them well,” Reiman claimed. “They just chose to turn a blind eye, or say they didn’t want to cause any more problems.” 

A 2024 EHS graduate, Brooklyn Hill, spoke about her experiences at both Ellensburg High School and Kittitas Secondary School. 

Moving to EHS during the second half of Hill’s junior year, Hill highlighted the help from local adults wanting to support queer kids. An English teacher at EHS is known for hosting a club called Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA) and Pizza Klatch, a weekly lunch meetup that was hosted for queer kids needing a safe space. Hill said she found sanctuary there as well as at Helen House, a safe space run by local women. 

These women, in particular one EHS English teacher, played a large part in the DOJ investigation, according to the students interviewed.

Hill did not participate in this investigation, and she stated that the school didn’t make this case known to the public. “They tried to keep it as quiet as possible … it wasn’t mentioned in assemblies or school announcements,” Hill said. “We had school shooting threats and they kept it quiet and away from parents.” 

In April of 2023, The Observer covered board meetings where staff spoke out about a lack of transparency from the school district, specifically regarding discrimination.

In his response email, Tornow commented on the biggest issue the DOJ had with EHS’s response to the original events, “My predecessor made a decision not to follow district policy/procedure and asked EHS admin team to investigate the original incidents as school discipline events rather than looking at them through the lens of Harassment, Intimidation, Bullying policy and/or Sexual Harassment policy.”

Another EHS graduate requested to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of his story. He graduated in 2024, and during his time at the high school, he said he received support from the SAGA, Helen House and Pizza Klatch clubs. “I don’t believe there would be diversity and inclusivity programs without people in the community like this who are willing to volunteer their time and energy to these students that deserve a safe space, and that itself is a problem,” he said. 

In December of 2024, the Ellensburg City Council voted to restrict funding for LGBTQ+ programs at the high school, including the Pizza Klatch program. The program served primarily as a safe space for students to hang out with their friends. Later that month, the council overturned the decision, reportedly following public outcry.

The EHS graduate claimed that outside of these clubs, those who do not fit the social norms “are being slurred, bullied and belittled, by other students and unfortunately some staff as well.” 

As a trans man at EHS, the anonymous graduate said that when starting his transition in his freshman year, he was automatically put in online physical education, as well as given a key to the staff restrooms. 

“Instead of combating transphobia that I would have likely received there, the coping mechanism of the administration, as a way of dealing with trans and queer kids, is to hide them and isolate them,” he said. “Hate is taught, it can be overcome by advances in diversity and inclusivity, but instead EHS turns a blind eye to hate because they think it is okay to ignore struggles of the queer student body.” 

He stated that he consistently received hate from his peers, being called slurs in the hallway. He said that the fear and anger he experienced has been caused by a lack of education. “Now that I’ve graduated and lived separately from the school district, life in Ellensburg is better … I can live a beautiful, authentic and intrinsically queer life because I transitioned. It’s not the path for everyone, but the kids who are like me deserve to live too,” he said. 

Disclosure: Katherine Lewis graduated from Ellensburg High School in 2022 and attended the school in person for six months.