Washington Post article about Former Farquhar Administrator

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not understanding the jump within this thread to Dr. McKnight should resign. What has allegedly happened here is inexcusable, but she is far above the chain of day-to-day handling of personnel complaints.

Is there evidence that someone informed her directly prior to the WaPo article? Or Is this racism and/or misogyny by a vocal DCUM poster(s)?

There are also implications throughout this thread that she is friends with the perpetrator. What is that based on? If it's just that they must be friends because they are both black educators, you must know that is racist to the core.

McKnight’s tenure in MCPS extends beyond just her role as superintendent, as she was a deputy superintendent before that. Superintendents and their staffs are involved in all principal appointments.

She would have known about Beidleman and his personnel issues for sure. Now whether she knew of any cover ups, who knows. But even if she didn’t know the ins and outs of each claim, someone with THAT many complaints over years would not be eligible in my books to move forward into a high school principal role.

And that appointment and approval was under her watch and made with her blessing, which means she was aware that he had complaints filed about him in the past at least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree McKnight needs to go. Just one disaster after another. It seems people of the preferred race category get away with anything and get choice positions.

Not the time nor place for the last part of that statement.

It's exactly the right time. White women suffered because of the underlying mentality but who bears the consequences after? The children of Paint Branch. These ultra progressive policies have extremely negative consequences on the very people they are designed to support. The same is true for being soft on crime. Joe Schmo in Potomac with kids in private school don't suffer from these policies.

I'm all.for policies that bring people up but that is not what ultra left policies do. They drag everyone down to a low bar. Look at the state of our schools. We went from being one of the best school systems in the entire nation to a hot mess.

It's not an "ultra-progressive policy" to ignore.complaints of sexual and other workplace harassment. There's a system in place to address these issues, and obviously the system broke down and did not work in this case. It made the victims so despondent that they felt that there was nothing to lose by going to the press.

It.is absolutely shameful that an individual who triggered so many complaints over the years was promoted to a HS principal position.

All of the systems in MCPS are designed to protect the worst behaved students and adults. Don’t fool yourself in thinking otherwise. This is why we had to go to the media and still speak anonymously. We still fear retaliation from MCPS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not understanding the jump within this thread to Dr. McKnight should resign. What has allegedly happened here is inexcusable, but she is far above the chain of day-to-day handling of personnel complaints.

Is there evidence that someone informed her directly prior to the WaPo article? Or Is this racism and/or misogyny by a vocal DCUM poster(s)?

There are also implications throughout this thread that she is friends with the perpetrator. What is that based on? If it's just that they must be friends because they are both black educators, you must know that is racist to the core.

Alternatively, why should she be allowed to stay?

News story after news story of everything wrong in MCPS that central office ignores until it is beyond belief.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we all know why this guy was allowed to get away with predatory behavior for so long. Absolutely disgusting and also compelling grounds to terminate McKnight immediately as superintendent.

+1 She has no business to run MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear God! The fact that so many knew of these allegations and not only dismissed them but PROMOTED him to further positions of power is disgusting.

The Board of Education recently approved his promotion. I know they are rubberstamps but they have to explain their decision. Will the Apple Ballot endorse any of the incumbents?

Geez, people.

The board has zero visibility on any potential HR actions…but they should. At the very least they should know if any complaints have been filed or investigated. Having said that, I bet any complaints were quietly dismissed.

The WaPo article says board members were directly emailed about Beidleman. So if they didn’t know there was an issue before those emails, they did after that. And the fact that they still voted to approve his appointment to PB despite knowing there were complaints about him is damning.

If they were emailed anonymously, I have some sympathy for them. It is always hard to know what to do with an anonymous email. Although they could have dug into the issue a little and all the complaints would have surfaced

[Anonymous]

If BOE keeps her then entire BOE is involved in this cover up. They should be sued.

[Anonymous]

Is there any info on who is in leadership at Central Office? A roster, perhaps?

My sense based on promotions (when school staff leave for big jobs at Central) is admittedly limited to what I’ve observed, but it seems skewed in terms of demographics. Have they cultivated a clique that is protecting each other for their own self-preservation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If BOE keeps her then entire BOE is involved in this cover up. They should be sued.

I don’t see how the principal or superintendent can keep their jobs.

He is the common denominator in all the complaints. Buh-bye!

She either did have visibility and didn’t take action OR she didn’t have visibility which makes her an inept leader. Either reason makes her unequipped for the job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If BOE keeps her then entire BOE is involved in this cover up. They should be sued.

I don’t see how the principal or superintendent can keep their jobs.

He is the common denominator in all the complaints. Buh-bye!

She either did have visibility and didn’t take action OR she didn’t have visibility which makes her an inept leader. Either reason makes her unequipped for the job.

Exactly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If BOE keeps her then entire BOE is involved in this cover up. They should be sued.

I don’t see how the principal or superintendent can keep their jobs.

He is the common denominator in all the complaints. Buh-bye!

She either did have visibility and didn’t take action OR she didn’t have visibility which makes her an inept leader. Either reason makes her unequipped for the job.

There is no way they can keep an insider.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If BOE keeps her then entire BOE is involved in this cover up. They should be sued.

I don’t see how the principal or superintendent can keep their jobs.

He is the common denominator in all the complaints. Buh-bye!

She either did have visibility and didn’t take action OR she didn’t have visibility which makes her an inept leader. Either reason makes her unequipped for the job.

She is either not fit to do her job and inept or simply involved in a cover up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/08/11/joel-beidleman-montgomery-county-principal/

Very disturbing allegations against current administrator of Paint Branch HS, who was formerly at Farquhar MS, Joel Beidleman. I wonder what MCPS will do about this.

Well, he is hot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/08/11/joel-beidleman-montgomery-county-principal/

Very disturbing allegations against current administrator of Paint Branch HS, who was formerly at Farquhar MS, Joel Beidleman. I wonder what MCPS will do about this.

Well, he is hot.

Lol. Hey Joel. The rest of us have eyes.

[Anonymous]

PhD from Hood lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s sadder is that McKnight just promotes her friends......

And so did Jerry Weast, Jack Smith and others in the same role.

Name a similar situation involving Weast or Smith. We’ll wait.

The suggestion that it’s “our turn” to have a corrupt and/or incomplete superintendent sounds like Marion Barry-era excuse making. And it’s what a lot of families were hoping to avoid by moving to MoCo.

There were child predators protected in MCPS under both Weast and Smith.

This is different for a number of reasons including:
1. This is post MeToo
2. The predator complaints didn't go to the high level directly by the accuser
3. The accused weren't promotes into more powerful positions over the victim pool by the people whonwere directly aware of the complaints.

This is Watergate level coverup