Washington Post article about Former Farquhar Administrator

[Anonymous]

Sick!

Anonymous wrote: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:

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.

Not only that, but the most explosive written report from victims appears to have been filed this February, two years into her term. Those reports were swept under the rug under her tenure and he received a promotion just months after that.

She was deputy superintendent during the earlier allegations, but she was superintendent at the point he was promoted. There was no one above her, and no one to lay this on but herself. I have tried to be somewhat supportive of her, because I do feel like many of the criticisms have been racialized, but allowing this to continue should be a career ending mistake for her and anyone else implicated.

[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.

It’s been in the works since March 2023

[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.

This makes no sense....I'm literally pointing out that Joel and others like him use race/equity talk to act like they're doing good on behalf of people of color, when in reality, they just allow abuse or lowered expectations to take root.

Why would Joel be shooting himself in the foot by taking that stance and posting that on an anonymous forum in defense of himself when it runs counter to what he's arguing in public and in the article? Get a grip.

[Anonymous]

Former mcps teacher here. It is so toxic to work there because it is a culture of abuse. They abuse and burn through teachers without any regard or fear that the may get caught. I still have ptsd from working there. The day they fire there teachers who stand up for themselves they throw a big pizza party for themselves to show staff where there union dues go. It's pathetic.

[Anonymous]

So many toxic people enabled his behavior, including the AP that sent the invitation to his farewell party with “hope to see many of you there” and “A truly great principal is hard to find, difficult to part with, and impossible to forget”. I don’t have any confidence that she and 2 interns will be able to steer the school through all of this mess. Anyone who worked under this man suffers from Narcissistic Abuse Syndrome (and many FMS teachers have only worked under this admin and don’t k ke any better).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anybody who ignored this shit and promoted him needs to be fired.

Yes. A real leader would take full responsibility. But nobody is a real leader anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With regard to the deleting, in general Jeff removes posts that name specific individuals. I'm guessing that the rationale is that this site is anonymous and anyone could say anything about anyone.

But the WaPo article is well-researched and includes individuals willing to be named as victims, which feels much different than past posts.

Regarding the article (and the situation itself), I'm shocked. I work in a male-dominated field where some "locker room talk" is tolerated but even my workplace would never stand for this level of documented harassment.

I'm wondering how race and gender play into this. In my field, inappropriate remarks are tolerated because the entire environment is so male-dominated that women are expected to just...deal with it.

In this case, you have a young(ish) Black man in a field dominated by white women. Is there an element of "glass elevator" in play? Pushing him forward even as he faced allegations that would have killed the careers of someone who the Powers That Be had a little bit less invested in?

I hate to say that I agree with you. I hate that I am being put in a situation where I even have to admit this because it is such a disservice to every other person of color that deserves the job! I have heard a lot about people getting moved up the chain at MCPS in the name of diversity a lot these last few years and it is so frustrating because when they don't work out it just makes everyone look bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I very much believe in the diversity. I even have one of those signs in my front yard that every stand up comedian mocks. But I’m going to call this for what I see it.

A male POC in a white female dominated profession continues to get promoted despite known workplace toxicity that he fosters and egregious sexual harassment. And he’s mentored - and even aided - by Eric Minus, another male POC, who knows exactly how the system operates and how you can get away with anything so long as you put on a good face to the people up high and fly the flag of underrepresented populations in education leadership.

It is disgusting. It gives equity, diversity, and public education a bad name.

[phone]

[Anonymous]

Me thinks someone will be working for the Central Office soon to spread their methodologies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With regard to the deleting, in general Jeff removes posts that name specific individuals. I'm guessing that the rationale is that this site is anonymous and anyone could say anything about anyone.

But the WaPo article is well-researched and includes individuals willing to be named as victims, which feels much different than past posts.

Regarding the article (and the situation itself), I'm shocked. I work in a male-dominated field where some "locker room talk" is tolerated but even my workplace would never stand for this level of documented harassment.

I'm wondering how race and gender play into this. In my field, inappropriate remarks are tolerated because the entire environment is so male-dominated that women are expected to just...deal with it.

In this case, you have a young(ish) Black man in a field dominated by white women. Is there an element of "glass elevator" in play? Pushing him forward even as he faced allegations that would have killed the careers of someone who the Powers That Be had a little bit less invested in?

I hate to say that I agree with you. I hate that I am being put in a situation where I even have to admit this because it is such a disservice to every other person of color that deserves the job! I have heard a lot about people getting moved up the chain at MCPS in the name of diversity a lot these last few years and it is so frustrating because when they don't work out it just makes everyone look bad.

It’s been like that for many years in the county government as well. It’s not just mcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anybody who ignored this shit and promoted him needs to be fired.

Yes. A real leader would take full responsibility. But nobody is a real leader anymore.

True but isn't this person presumed innocent until proven otherwise? And if so then it's just a matter of due process and there's nothing to take responsibility for...

[Anonymous]

I hope Joel isn’t on PAID leave. So many people need to be fired, including his boss and the superintendent, both of whom were directly told of this man’s vile behavior.
How much money does MCPS have to keep defending itself against all these huge lawsuits???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I very much believe in the diversity. I even have one of those signs in my front yard that every stand up comedian mocks. But I’m going to call this for what I see it.

A male POC in a white female dominated profession continues to get promoted despite known workplace toxicity that he fosters and egregious sexual harassment. And he’s mentored - and even aided - by Eric Minus, another male POC, who knows exactly how the system operates and how you can get away with anything so long as you put on a good face to the people up high and fly the flag of underrepresented populations in education leadership.

It is disgusting. It gives equity, diversity, and public education a bad name.

Minus has since left MCPS and went to Baltimore County, where he was appointed an executive director of secondary schools.

[Anonymous]

I'm a school based administrator in MCPS and I can tell you, the motto at central office is "Screw up, move up". Nobody is surprised to see this man's name in the press. The fact that he has so many complaints against him with no action taken is disgusting.
PP mentioned the fact that he's a man of color in a predominantly white female-dominated line of work and that's why things were ignored. I have to agree to an extent. MoCo residents might not want to believe this, but MCPS overlooks a lot to keep a diverse looking leadership staff. I've seen many overly qualified white candidates not even considered for leadership positions due to optics. There are absolutely times that lesser qualified candidates of color are given the jobs so that our system looks like the community we serve.