Robert Ashe was a school teacher at Catlin Gabel in Portland, OR.
Ashe was an English teacher from 1967 to 1995. Ashe also coached soccer and was commonly known as “Bob.”
Ashe died in 2000.
An internal investigation by Catlin Gabel surfaced the following allegations of sexual harassment, misconduct and abuse against Ashe:
For nearly 40 years, Ashe engaged in sexism towards female students, sexually harassed female students, and forced male students to kiss female students.
In the 1970s, Ashe took a female student to an all-male drinking event, got her inebriated, and tried to kiss her in the back seat of his car. Also, Ashe attempted to have sexual intercourse with a student on a trip abroad.
In the 1980s, Ashe targeted a female student and sexually harassed her. Among other inappropriate behavior, Ashe insisted the female student meet with him for student-teacher conferences in his office with the door shut even when she asked for the door to be open.
In 1995, Ashe was sued in state court for allegedly sexually abusing a student from another school during a soccer camp that took place on the Catlin Gabel campus. The lawsuit was dismissed—presumably due to a private settlement. Ashe then negotiated his resignation from Catlin Gabel.
Crew Janci is currently investigating on behalf of victims of abuse at Catlin Gabel. Crew Janci LLP is a Portland-based law firm known for representing victims of sexual abuse around the country in cases against schools and large institutions of trust. In 2017, Crew Janci LLP was featured in the New York times in relation to their successful advocacy on behalf of 21 victims of sexual abuse at an elite private school in New Jersey. Anyone with information about misconduct from Catlin Gabel teaches or staff should contact us confidentially at 1-888-407-0224 or by using our online form.