Reform Clark County’s Rob Anderson released an investigative podcast episode in his “ReformCast” series that detailed abuse allegations against a former Ridgefield High School cheer coach that ended up including a breach of student identity safety in Anderson’s public records request.
The timeline and process of the Ridgefield School District were troubling for Anderson, but even more troubling was that he received documents containing full student names and even student identification numbers, he said to The Reflector. The student names released in the records request included complainants and witnesses to the allegations against former head cheer coach Angela Campbell.
Campbell was accused of conduct that left cheerleaders feeling intimidated, humiliated, and targeted. Some reports were handwritten—halting, emotional, and clearly difficult for students to put into words, Anderson said on the ReformCast episode, citing public records he received. Some complaints accused Campbell of public shaming, inappropriate and profane language, retaliatory behavior and intrusive involvement in students’ personal relationships.
Anderson said one complaint listed in his public records request illustrated that Campbell told a student in the cheer program that they are useless, with additional inappropriate language directed at the student.
Campbell also lists experience on her LinkedIn profile as an assistant principal and athletic director at Woodland Middle School, however, she is currently not listed as a staff member in the Woodland Public Schools District.
Anderson was initially asked to look into allegations and complaints from a parent of a cheerleader, who at the time felt any investigation or discipline was going nowhere. Anderson also clarified with the parent to make sure they did not give the district the “thumbs up” to release their student’s name, which was the title of a document released to Anderson.
“They say it’s only five documents, we say it’s six documents, we say that nine students were outed, identified, they say eight,” Anderson said of the breach of identity. “But [the school district] does agree that it was 17 instances of unredaction.”
Anderson even claimed that after he alerted the parent about the student identities released in his records request and the parent had alerted the school district, he received a second batch of records, with more documents for his investigative report, with even more identifying information of students.
“The documents that they said they cleaned up, I still found identifying [information], you know, either student ID or name,” Anderson said, adding that the district included the unredacted copies he was sent in the previous release of records. “I’ve just never seen anything like this.”
In a response to The Reflector, the Ridgefield School District stated that it takes student safety and privacy seriously and follows state public records laws when responding to requests.
“In our release of responsive records as required by law, identifying student information was inadvertently included,” Joe Vajgrt, Director of Communications, stated in an email on behalf of the school district. “Once the mistake was identified, we took immediate steps to correct it, including sending an updated records file and a request to destroy the previously sent file. We also reviewed and reinforced our expectations and procedures to help prevent similar errors in the future.”
Vajgrt did ensure information in question was not publicly posted or broadly distributed by the district. The information was sent directly to the individuals who submitted the public records requests, Vajgrt stated.
“We are sincerely sorry for the good-faith error, and apologize for the mistake, as indicated in the ReformCast video,” Vajgrt stated. “We sincerely regret the error and understand the importance of safeguarding student information. Protecting the privacy of our students and families remains a top priority.”
The time of complaints and allegations that the district was aware of dates back to 2023, Anderson said. Anderson said on June 3, 2025, a Ridgefield parent had reached out to him to discuss not necessarily the extent of allegations, but the time factor of complaints and situations the district had been aware of, as illustrated in the public records.
Anderson also added that the school district had nominated Campbell for state coach of the year on May 30, 2025.
“And that was in the midst of, you know, supposedly the superintendent was investigating [complaints and allegations],” Anderson said. “Later on, through public record,s we found out that a letter of directive had been issued where these allegations have been proven and from the district’s perspective, however, that letter is a little suspect because there’s no date on it, which is really odd. I’ve never seen anything that had to do with, like, disciplinary [measures] that never had a date. Then also the metadata from that document showed that it was created in I think mid June.”
Vajgrt stated that each complaint or concern received by Ridgefield High School administration was investigated at the time it was received.
“Feedback was also solicited from students and families on the cheer program during the period in question,” Vajgrt stated.
Vajgrt added that Ridgefield School District Superintendent Dr. Jenny Rodriquez was first made aware of the concerns by a parent on April 25, 2025, and received a formal complaint from the same parent on May 10, 2025.
“The investigation was immediately opened to review the concerns, documents provided by the parent, and additional documents and information collected from RHS staff,” Vajgrt stated. “During the course of the investigation, the coach submitted her resignation.”
The timing of Campbell’s resignation raised suspicion for Anderson.
Days after being nominated for the state award, Campbell announced her resignation on June 9, 2025.
“So this is just a classic situation where bad behavior — and instead of really letting the process bear out full accountability — they let this coach off the hook,” Anderson said.
In response to Anderson’s Facebook post with his ReformCast episode, Vajgrt stated the post referenced the nomination of two athletics staff for state awards.
“These nominations come from external parties,” Vajgrt stated. “Personnel investigations are confidential in nature, and the Director of Communications was not involved in the open investigation, nor aware of the investigation at the time of the Facebook post.”
After the experience and diving into the records for his investigative reporting on his ReformCast episode, Anderson questions whether the Ridgefield School District is prioritizing students’ well-being.
“What it shows is kind of a pattern where protecting students is not the priority, you know,” he said. “I mean, it’s a nice slogan, but in realit,y it just didn’t happen, and at multiple levels there should be accountability. There should be consequences to it, and that the community knows that this has truly been corrected and right now we don’t really have that besides, you know, obviously well-constructed statements.”
