Days after the news broke that a Happy Valley Elementary School counselor crashed a car with what police said was a blood-alcohol content of .556%, many parents of students at the school say they plan to turn up at the school district’s board meeting Thursday night.
While they won’t be talking specifically about Joni Clayton, the counselor in question — district policy forbids people from talking about individual staff members at board meetings — some parents say they plan to speak out about the school’s handling of the incident.
The North Clackamas School District put Clayton on leave after prosecutors on Friday accused her of criminal driving with a suspended license, reckless driving, criminal mischief and driving under the influence of intoxicants in the Sept. 13 crash.
Court documents show she’s had three crashes in 18 months in which officials said alcohol was involved.
In June, while driving, Clayton allegedly crashed into a car hard enough to slam it into another vehicle, court records show, and a breath test later registered her blood-alcohol content as .24%.
She faces charges of reckless driving and DUII for that case, which is still open.
And on April 1, 2025, Clayton was sentenced to court-ordered substance-abuse treatment and probation after she pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and DUII after she drove into a fence, court records show.
Police said she had a blood-alcohol content of .492% after the crash. A blood-alcohol content of .30-.40% can cause alcohol poisoning in most people, experts say. Blood-alcohol percentages over .40% can cause coma and respiratory arrest and be fatal. Oregon’s legal limit is .08%.
She was also convicted in August for harassing her ex-husband by sending him vulgar texts and voicemails, court records show.
Although the school rapidly responded to The Oregonian/OregonLive and other news outlets about Clayton’s leave — Long confirmed the news in an email around 7:30 p.m. Sunday — that information was never directly communicated to the entire school community, parents say.
Long confirmed on Thursday afternoon that the district hasn’t sent out a community email.
“North Clackamas School District does not typically send community notification when a staff member is on leave,” he wrote.
The lack of community-wide response has left some parents frustrated, including Rachel Pierson, a parent at Happy Valley Elementary, who plans to speak Thursday night.
“I think our kids deserve to have a counselor present who is a safe adult, and North Clackamas just does not seem to care,” she said. “We don’t know where else to turn.”
In addition to Pierson, roughly four other parents have signed up to speak, she said.
The district board meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in the district boardrooms at 12400 SE Freeman Way, Milwaukie, OR 97222. It can also be viewed via livestream here.
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