PORTLAND, OR - A middle school teacher in Portland has been arrested on suspicion of luring a minor, Oregon Live reported. Craig Douglas-Meyers, 38, was arrested last week after local police and agents from the Department of Homeland Security executed a search warrant on his home.
Police said the arrest culminates a months-long investigation of Meyers, a math teacher at Hosford Middle School.
The investigation began when the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) was notified by the Yuba City Police Department in California regarding a city man being a subject in an undercover investigation whereby a police officer was posing online as a 13-year-old child, PPB said in a statement.
Police say it was Douglas-Meyers who initiated the conversations, adding that they were “sexual in nature and involved discussions on how to meet.”
Those conversations between Douglas-Meyers and a Yuba City detective provided the impetus for PPB and DHS to serve the search warrant at Douglas-Meyers’ home and arrest him, police said.
According to Sydney Kelly, Portland Public Schools’ spokesperson, Douglas-Meyers has been placed on administrative leave.
“There is no information that we are aware of that any PPS students were impacted,” Kelly said in an email to Oregon Live.
A Google Classroom “About Me” page says that Douglas-Meyers has been teaching since 2008, with experience in middle school math, science, and writing, as well as advanced calculus in high school.
“I worked in the Beaverton, Evergreen, and Portland Public School districts,” he wrote, adding that he’d worked at Roseway Heights Middle School and Irvington K-8 before transferring to Hosford.
Douglas-Meyers grew up near Sandy, Oregon, and attended Portland State University, where he earned dual degrees in math and science, his profile says. He went on to receive a teaching degree from the University of Portland. Douglas-Meyers served as an advisor to the school’s math club at Hosford and pushed “self-paced” learning, where students watched instructional videos of content he created, followed up by class time for hands-on work and teacher feedback.
Douglas-Meyers noted he was a proponent of the school district’s move to “proficiency grading,” which focuses on how well students master specific skills rather than behavior in class and turning in assignments on time.
Oregon Live reached out to Mary Tyler, president of the Hosford Parent Teachers Association, who declined to comment on the news of Douglas-Meyers’ arrest last week, however, word is spreading among the school community via social media, with parents urging each other to speak to their children to see if Douglas-Meyers had any inappropriate interaction with them.
PPB expressed concern that Douglas-Meyers may have victimized other children in the past and is asking anyone with information about him to contact Portland Police Bureau Officer Aaron Rizzo at aaron.rizzo@police.portlandoregon.gov.
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