Grant Magazine Pens Story About Conduct of Portland Man Who Ran Instagram Account …

On Monday morning, Grant High School’s student magazine published a story about a man in his late 20s who for years has run an Instagram account and associated website dedicated to photographing and highlighting high school female sports teams—and the female athletes who compete—in Oregon.Grant Magazine writes that Eric Watkins, who for years ran the popular Instagram account “@eliteoregongirls,” had a pattern of inappropriate conduct with young female athletes whose performance he documented and photographed over the years, some as young as 13.Screenshots of direct message conversations between five separate female student athletes and Watkins on Instagram obtained by Grant Magazine authors Claire Coffey, Ava Siano and Veronica Bianco show that Watkins would often send flirty messages to female athletes, decorated with heart and winky emojis. Watkins initiated the conversations.Watkins’ conduct was such that the Salem Keizer School District in May banned him from all school properties and events, Grant Magazine found. The district cited, according to the article, “inappropriate messages between Watkins and student athletes in the district, some as young as 13 years old.”Prior to 2020, Watkins covered both girls’ and boys’ youth sports. But in 2020, according to Grant Magazine, he switched to only coverage of female
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