Washington Post article about Former Farquhar Administrator

[Anonymous]

No comments yet from public officials AFAIK. Are they hoping this will blow over?

[Anonymous]

Outstanding investigative journalism. Kudos to all the women and men who shared their stories, and to the Post for assembling this reporting team and publishing the article.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Outstanding investigative journalism. Kudos to all the women and men who shared their stories, and to the Post for assembling this reporting team and publishing the article.

+1 I get the impression this all came together very quickly, just since he was named principal at PBHS. This is an incredible piece to pull together, fact-check, and get through high-level editing on that timeframe.

[Anonymous]

I read the article and am thoroughly disgusted by it. There were so many complaints and so much proof and yet it got swept aside until Wapo stepped in. I can also tell you that as a teacher, I completely understand the helplessness the staff felt. I've had some awful administrators over the years and the current one is on a giant ego trip. He knows best, he has all the power, and there's nothing we can do about it. Unlike other jobs, tenure keeps us quiet - we can't start over at the bottom of the pay scale elsewhere, so we suck it up. These women took steps to point out very blatant misconduct and still weren't treated fairly, even in some cases losing out on positions. I'm so glad that the Wapo article is at least publicizing this guy's piggish behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outstanding investigative journalism. Kudos to all the women and men who shared their stories, and to the Post for assembling this reporting team and publishing the article.

+1 I get the impression this all came together very quickly, just since he was named principal at PBHS. This is an incredible piece to pull together, fact-check, and get through high-level editing on that timeframe.

Since he was leaving Farquhar this enabled the staff to go public without fear of direct retribution.

[Anonymous]

Wow. I am appalled. That was an extremely detailed expose by the Post and they brought receipts. This goes beyond McKnight as his upward trajectory pre-dates her, but it's representative that the fish is rotting from the head. How do you have that many complaints IN WRITING and do nothing about it? Who was protecting this creep?

Big kudos to the teachers who came forward for this article and the Post for pulling this together and publicizing it. I'm an MCPS employee and am waiting to see what the official response is. I'm sure it will inevitably disappoint and the wagons will circle again, but this is SO bad and SO that they have to do something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outstanding investigative journalism. Kudos to all the women and men who shared their stories, and to the Post for assembling this reporting team and publishing the article.

+1 I get the impression this all came together very quickly, just since he was named principal at PBHS. This is an incredible piece to pull together, fact-check, and get through high-level editing on that timeframe.

It was not pulled together quickly. It's been well over a month since one of the reporters reached out to former coworkers of mine.

[Anonymous]

[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I am appalled. That was an extremely detailed expose by the Post and they brought receipts. This goes beyond McKnight as his upward trajectory pre-dates her, but it's representative that the fish is rotting from the head. How do you have that many complaints IN WRITING and do nothing about it? Who was protecting this creep?

Big kudos to the teachers who came forward for this article and the Post for pulling this together and publicizing it. I'm an MCPS employee and am waiting to see what the official response is. I'm sure it will inevitably disappoint and the wagons will circle again, but this is SO bad and SO that they have to do something.

*meant to say "so bad and so public" at the end there

[Anonymous]

Here is a link that bypasses the Washington Post paywall:

https://wapo.st/3OuKn1Y

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I am appalled. That was an extremely detailed expose by the Post and they brought receipts. This goes beyond McKnight as his upward trajectory pre-dates her, but it's representative that the fish is rotting from the head. How do you have that many complaints IN WRITING and do nothing about it? Who was protecting this creep?

Big kudos to the teachers who came forward for this article and the Post for pulling this together and publicizing it. I'm an MCPS employee and am waiting to see what the official response is. I'm sure it will inevitably disappoint and the wagons will circle again, but this is SO bad and SO that they have to do something.

For sure, but she knew of the allegations and did nothing, apparently.

[Anonymous]

A quick search reveals he received his doctorate from Hood College (Organizational Leadership program) and won 1st place for his talk on "Psychological Safe School Environments."

https://www.hood.edu/discover/stories/3mt-winner-spotlight-joel-beidleman

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I am appalled. That was an extremely detailed expose by the Post and they brought receipts. This goes beyond McKnight as his upward trajectory pre-dates her, but it's representative that the fish is rotting from the head. How do you have that many complaints IN WRITING and do nothing about it? Who was protecting this creep?

Big kudos to the teachers who came forward for this article and the Post for pulling this together and publicizing it. I'm an MCPS employee and am waiting to see what the official response is. I'm sure it will inevitably disappoint and the wagons will circle again, but this is SO bad and SO that they have to do something.

McKnight was deputy superintendent before she became interim and then permanent superintendent. She's definitely part of the problem and an architect of an organizational culture that promotes failure and lacks accountability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outstanding investigative journalism. Kudos to all the women and men who shared their stories, and to the Post for assembling this reporting team and publishing the article.

+1 I get the impression this all came together very quickly, just since he was named principal at PBHS. This is an incredible piece to pull together, fact-check, and get through high-level editing on that timeframe.

It was not pulled together quickly. It's been well over a month since one of the reporters reached out to former coworkers of mine.

A month and a half to two months is actually an extremely fast timeline for an investigative story like this one. Something that specifically names a person, and then details specific allegations over time as well as lack of response from Central Office, is weeks and weeks and weeks of work.

Even after the reporting was done, this piece almost certainly required more than a week of fact checking, plus probably a week of time with the legal department, not to mention whatever timeline they gave MCPS to respond.

Please trust that from a journalism perspective, this is lightning speed for the topic.

[Anonymous]

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In reading the article, Dr. Beidelman is sociopath and an unrepentant liar. Not only does he need to be fired, but several of his enablers as well. Dr. McKnight needs to stop letting bad actors get away with murder just because they're also people of color. It's not ok.

Ew, PP. Seriously. Yuck. Your assumption says nothing about MCPS but a lot about you.

It's a pretty reasonable assumption actually. I am someone who really believes in racial equity but there is definitely a culture of "white people bad, Black people good" in the racial equity space.

No. No, it's not. And your statement says a lot about you too.

It sure does. That I am knowledgeable about current trends in the racial equity space. It's definitely an important field, but in an effort to counteract White supremacy there is definitely a simplistic approach to understanding different groups.

Not only is it simplistic, but it is toxic and hostile to the very people it claims to advocate for: People of color.

Looks like we found on what Joel’s doing with his free time. Hi Joel. Can’t wait for you to get fired and sued into oblivion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I am appalled. That was an extremely detailed expose by the Post and they brought receipts. This goes beyond McKnight as his upward trajectory pre-dates her, but it's representative that the fish is rotting from the head. How do you have that many complaints IN WRITING and do nothing about it? Who was protecting this creep?

Big kudos to the teachers who came forward for this article and the Post for pulling this together and publicizing it. I'm an MCPS employee and am waiting to see what the official response is. I'm sure it will inevitably disappoint and the wagons will circle again, but this is SO bad and SO that they have to do something.

McKnight was deputy superintendent before she became interim and then permanent superintendent. She's definitely part of the problem and an architect of an organizational culture that promotes failure and lacks accountability.

PP. Absolutely 100% agree. I'm just saying that this goes beyond McKnight, as there were people above her who were clearly sweeping this under the rug before she got into those positions of authority. But now that she's in that position herself, it is 100% a reflection of her and the disgusting culture she is creating/enabling/continuing that this happened now.