In October 2025, Mercer Island School District Superintendent Fred Rundle issued a press release saying that allegations detailed in an InvestigateWest story published that day were new to him.
“We learned of an allegation of sexual misconduct involving a former Mercer Island High School teacher, Curtis Johnston, and a female student who graduated in 2011,” Rundle wrote.
Rundle, who has held various leadership positions at the district since 2013 and became the superintendent in 2022, repeated a week later that he learned about the allegations “in real time.” And once again in January, he wrote in a press release that the district learned “at the same time as the community, through the InvestigateWest article.”…