Focus: Adults in the Room

In 1998, a popular teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle — named Tom Hudson — falls into a crevasse while mountain-climbing in Olympic National Park. Hudson is accompanied by six teenage students from the school's outdoor program, who pull off a daring rescue of their teacher using techniques he taught them.
Isolde Raftery, a reporter for the school paper, plans to write about the rescue as a hero story validating Hudson’s leadership. But she learns he cut corners during the climb... and it wasn't the first time he'd done so.
This discovery leads to a confrontation between Isolde and Hudson, and is the first crack in the teacher's legendary reputation at Garfield — which shatters months later.
Get in touch with the team by email at [email protected]. Support KUOW and projects like this by donating at kuow.org/donate/focus.
Adults in the Room is part of FOCUS, a dedicated documentary channel from KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR network. It is hosted by Isolde Raftery. Original reporting by Isolde Raftery, Jeannie Yandel, and Will James. Our producers are Will James and Alec Cowan. Our editor is Jeannie Yandel. Music by BC Campbell. A special thank you to Ella Hushagen, without whom this project would not be possible.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The production team behind Lost Patients returns on February 24 with a new investigative series: Adults in the Room. Seattle, 1999. At Garfield High School, Mr. Hudson is a legend. With a thundering voice and imposing stature, Mr. Hudson — or “Tom” as select students call him — teaches biology and leads an elite outdoors program. But when teen reporters at the school paper start exploring a rumor that he sexually abused students, all hell breaks loose. Adults close ranks, and schoolmates turn on the young journalists. And then one day, a voice on the school intercom announces that Mr. Hudson is dead.
Isolde Raftery is one of the students who first heard about and reported allegations against Mr. Hudson. Three decades later, she is an investigative journalist in Seattle. In Adults in the Room, Raftery re-reports the story to understand what really happened in 1999. Was a whole school community groomed by a charismatic predator? Or was she part of a whisper campaign that cost the life of a great teacher?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Seattle, police responded to nearly ten thousand scenes of people in crisis last year. And one of the only remaining paths into Washington State's largest psychiatric hospital is through jail.

But some cities are experimenting with ways to disentangle mental health care from policing — setting up new branches of emergency services that specifically handle mental illness, addiction, and homelessness. Tradeoffs recently teamed up with The Marshall Project to produce The Fifth Branch, a three- part series examining a new approach being tested in the city of Durham, North Carolina.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A story from the 'Hush" investigative podcast from Oregon Public Broadcasting. In this episode, reporter Leah Sottile explores the case of Jesse Lee Johnson, a Black man who lived for 17 years on Oregon's death row for a crime he says he didn't commit.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

A story from the 'Hush" investigative podcast from Oregon Public Broadcasting. In this episode, reporter Leah Sottile explores the case of Jesse Lee Johnson, a Black man who lived for 17 years on Oregon's death row for a crime he says he didn't commit.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.