October 24, 2018
Page 5
Lessons Learned
C ontinueD froM p age 3
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about the progression of racism
and not being racist.
Cameron recalled the shocked
silence he and other players had at
the time.
“I remember when it happened,
first I thought, ‘Oh, he just said
that!” Cameron said, adding that
he didn’t reach out to anybody
because he was “scared they were
going to take it out against me.”
Cameron eventually did tell his
father, Glenn, who said the coach
shouldn’t have used that language,
arguing that Newsom’s use of the
word was provocative and emo-
tionally distressful, especially for
black kids like his son which are
part of a small minority at Sunset,
a high school that has the lowest
black and minority enrollment of
any high school in the Beaverton
district.
Glenn was not satisfied that
Sunset High School Principal
John Huelskamp was thoroughly
investigating his complaint and
taking action. But that changed
after the principal found corrobo-
ration this fall by interviewing the
football players still at the school
who attended the study hall in dis-
pute and found that a handful of
them recalled the incident.
Huelskamp pledged Tuesday
that the episode will not happen
again. He told the Portland Ob-
server that it was determined that
Newsom was wrong to use the
n-word even if the context was to
make a point about racial prog-
ress. He also found that the coach
had good intentions and did not
want to disparage anyone or any
race.
Huelskamp said Newsom has
long been thought of as a wonder-
ful coach at Sunset. As president
of Pacific Office Automation, an
Oregon-based firm known as one
of the country’s largest office
product supply chains, he is a ma-
jor donor to the school. He was
behind many of the upgrades to
Sunset’s football field and stadi-
um and his company’s charitable
foundation is a platinum donor
to the school, the highest level
of support listed on the Sunset
Friends of Football website page.
Cameron, now a junior, suc-
cessfully transferred to Westview
High School in the same Beaver-
ton district. He continues to enjoy
the experience of playing football
and he also participates in wres-
tling and baseball.
Portland Observer Reporter
Danny Peterson contributed to
this article.