Facing felony mistreatment charges for allegedly failing to report cases of sexual abuse against students to authorities, St. Helens High School Principal Katy Wagner has resigned.

“Katy Wagner, who served as the St. Helens High School Principal, agreed to resign from her position on April 18, 2025,” the St. Helens School District said in a statement to the community. “The district will begin the search for a new principal and will notify the community as soon as the school board has approved the hiring of the new principal.”

The St. Helens school board was set to meet April 21 in executive session “to consider discipline of, and complaints against, public officers and employees” and “to receive confidential information protected by law- the advice of the District’s attorney”. The meeting was canceled the same day Wagner tendered her resignation.

Wagner has been on administrative leave since Nov. 15 after the Nov. 12 arrests of former SHHS teachers Eric Stearns and Mark Collins for alleged sexual abuse against students.

In December, she was charged with two counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment, felony charges, alleging that she “did unlawfully and knowingly withhold necessary and adequate physical care from the students of St. Helens High School,” in regard to the case against Stearns, the indictment reads.

She was also charged with two counts of first-degree official misconduct and two counts of second-degree official misconduct, alleging that she violated mandatory reporting requirements and that “the defendant was aware of and consciously disregarded the fact that the violation created a risk of the commission of a sex crime against a vulnerable person.”

Wagner has pleaded not guilty to all six charges.