Washington Post article about Former Farquhar Administrator

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These smiling administrators should be embarrassed- I would be if I were in their shoes. They are a bunch of sheep with no backbones. Anyone that stood and applauded supports what she stands for- harassment, bullying, and deceit; hopefully their staff retaliate and demand for these admin to sit back and remain in their offices all year.

Pathetic followers who can’t practice what they preach. And certainly don’t care for students OR staff

Easy to say that from an anonymous post. Not so easy when you are the one in the room. Not everyone in that room is bad. If the culture of fear is as high as folks are saying on here, who would dare interrupt their boss in front of all their colleagues to address? You wouldn't have been the hero in the room if you were a school admin at that meeting.

You don’t need to “call her out “ or “speak up” but you could certainly excuse yourself or ask questions. Why not ask a question about the matter? I’m an mcps teacher and have heard nothing from my administration. Where is their personal email denouncing this type of behavior & conduct? There is none because every single administrator in mcps has been brainwashed by McKnight and are her sheep , blindly following her

It is quite simple. It isn't your admins job to email you about this. It has nothing do with you unless it is a school you work at. Do you have issues with your leadership? By all means take it up with them. I'll make sure to denounce all teachers the next time there is a scandal involving a teacher and bash everyone who doesn't feel the need to get on a soapbox to let the world know how they feel.

JFC. If you are an admin and don't think this is impacting your staff, you are incompetent. You should resign. Please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These smiling administrators should be embarrassed- I would be if I were in their shoes. They are a bunch of sheep with no backbones. Anyone that stood and applauded supports what she stands for- harassment, bullying, and deceit; hopefully their staff retaliate and demand for these admin to sit back and remain in their offices all year.

Pathetic followers who can’t practice what they preach. And certainly don’t care for students OR staff

Easy to say that from an anonymous post. Not so easy when you are the one in the room. Not everyone in that room is bad. If the culture of fear is as high as folks are saying on here, who would dare interrupt their boss in front of all their colleagues to address? You wouldn't have been the hero in the room if you were a school admin at that meeting.

You don’t need to “call her out “ or “speak up” but you could certainly excuse yourself or ask questions. Why not ask a question about the matter? I’m an mcps teacher and have heard nothing from my administration. Where is their personal email denouncing this type of behavior & conduct? There is none because every single administrator in mcps has been brainwashed by McKnight and are her sheep , blindly following her

It is quite simple. It isn't your admins job to email you about this. It has nothing do with you unless it is a school you work at. Do you have issues with your leadership? By all means take it up with them. I'll make sure to denounce all teachers the next time there is a scandal involving a teacher and bash everyone who doesn't feel the need to get on a soapbox to let the world know how they feel.

JFC. If you are an admin and don't think this is impacting your staff, you are incompetent. You should resign. Please.

They won't resign. They were chanting "MCPS proud" yesterday because they feel the district is the best and not doing anything wrong. They want to keep climbing that ladder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These smiling administrators should be embarrassed- I would be if I were in their shoes. They are a bunch of sheep with no backbones. Anyone that stood and applauded supports what she stands for- harassment, bullying, and deceit; hopefully their staff retaliate and demand for these admin to sit back and remain in their offices all year.

Pathetic followers who can’t practice what they preach. And certainly don’t care for students OR staff

Easy to say that from an anonymous post. Not so easy when you are the one in the room. Not everyone in that room is bad. If the culture of fear is as high as folks are saying on here, who would dare interrupt their boss in front of all their colleagues to address? You wouldn't have been the hero in the room if you were a school admin at that meeting.

You don’t need to “call her out “ or “speak up” but you could certainly excuse yourself or ask questions. Why not ask a question about the matter? I’m an mcps teacher and have heard nothing from my administration. Where is their personal email denouncing this type of behavior & conduct? There is none because every single administrator in mcps has been brainwashed by McKnight and are her sheep , blindly following her

It is quite simple. It isn't your admins job to email you about this. It has nothing do with you unless it is a school you work at. Do you have issues with your leadership? By all means take it up with them. I'll make sure to denounce all teachers the next time there is a scandal involving a teacher and bash everyone who doesn't feel the need to get on a soapbox to let the world know how they feel.

This is a great example of the true toxic tone of mcps leadership. Soak it in folks. Yes, you should be reassuring your staff that these behaviors are unacceptable and that in YOUR building it won’t be tolerated.

The level of tone deafness is just astonishing with some MCPS admin.

[Anonymous]

TERRIBLE optics.

I don't think the school district realizes how demoralizing this is for ALL employees, not just those at the schools listed in the article. I actually work at a great school with a very supportive admin and I have had terrible experiences with central special ed staff. They are breaking federal law right and left on behalf of special ed students. It's terrible.

I'm glad my individual school is good, but I have NO FAITH in the central leadership and I know that if my current admins move on I cannot count on anyone in central management to protect me from having to work for a predator.

I hope this doesn't just go away and the pressure stays on the people who let this happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe that no one in the principal ranks raised their hand and said, hey, what’s happening here? Instead they applauded en masse and stood up and said they’re proud to work in MCPS? Yuck. I’m also totally turned off by the fact that Dr. McKnight offered counseling to Beidleman’s buddies rather than offering it more broadly as a therapeutic intervention for anyone and everyone upset that they’re part of a rudderless and valueless institution that promoted sexual harassers.

This is a precise example of the toxic mcps culture. From the TOP DOWN

As a parent there has been a sharp turn in school since Jack Smith left. The described meeting is in terrible taste given the nature of the allegations. I'm appalled by what I'm reading here.

Since Smith left but since Weast retired?

This. Smith was useless, Weast may have been hated by teachers, but he gave us the welldeserved reputation. Downhill since he left

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is independent. All the County Council can do is approve their budget. That's it. It's by design. Oversight of MCPS is from the BOE. The people elect the BOE.

MCPS can hire a truly independent investigator if they want. "Procurement" isn't an excuse, because the BOE in particular has the power to approve hiring a vendor outside of the usual procurement process (and it seems like a very good reason to here).

Judge MCPS by actions. That's what we did and why we left MCPS for private two years ago.

You were smart. MCPS’s reputation is in the toilet now, and they seem to be circling the wagons rather than taking the necessary steps to improve things - which would start by, at a minimum, putting McKnight on leave and commissioning a truly independent investigation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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]

In my opinion, this is an example of how MCPS' version of equity and diversity policies promote corruption. Unfortunately, I don't believe this is exclusive to MCPS.

Agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.laborlab.us/jackson_lewis_the_notorious_law_firm_at_the_forefront_of_union_busting

Jackson Lewis is a law firm with a notorious reputation for union-busting. The firm represents employers in labor disputes, lawsuits, and other matters related to unions, and its clients are often large corporations that seek to prevent or dismantle labor unions. Some of these clients include Google, Amazon, and the numerous universities and colleges.

Well, that won't go over well with the MCEA or with the County Council.

So basically, the Board of Education lied and told us they were hiring an independent investigative firm when that's clearly not the case. Let's call them out for it. Here's their contact information: nhttps://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/members/

It is an independent investigative firm - just an independent investigative firm that also gets hired, by others, for union-busting.

You can call the BoE out until the cows come home and it won't accomplish anything, because the only real power BoE has over MCPS is hiring the superintendent.

The only way we get change is going to the media. The only thing MCPS is scared of is bad publicity.

Not really. MCPS Central Office and the BOE really just don't seem to care. They're not scared of anything. McKnight knows that she can keep her job, no matter what happens. The well-paid Central Office employees will never be held accountable for anything.

MCPS is a huge entity with little oversight. They have nothing to be scared of.

They know taxpayers will continue to fund their corrupt nonsense, no matter what.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure I understand the logic of those on here who are saying that because MCPS is paying Jackson Lewis, they are not independent. Wouldn’t that be the same for any outside investigator retained by MCPS? And the County Council has made clear this is an MCPS investigation and it doesn’t look like they choose to use whatever investigatory authority/resources they have in the schools (if any) to pursue this. So it’s either MCPS does it themselves or they pay someone outside to do it. I suppose it is the issue of payment from MCPS that has some questioning “independence” but it seems the only alternative right now to MCPS self-investigating.

It’s standard practice for companies that undertake to have an independent investigation conducted to hire a firm with which they have no pre-existing relationship. On its face, it suggests the firm will exercise independent judgment.

If you hire a firm with which you already have a relationship, the appearance of independence is compromised, because people will assume the firm is going to pull its punches to preserve the existing business relationship.

In practice, things are more complicated, because a firm is more likely to get hired to perform such an investigation even for a company or business with which it had no existing relationship if it has a reputation for being moderate, not digging too deep, and finding people other than those at the top to blame.

But in this case the fix would already appear to be in from the inception. A report will get prepared that calls for improving policies and processes, but the venality of McKnight and her gaggle of sycophants will not be fully revealed. And they’ll likely claim the full report is privileged and only release a summary with the recommendations to improve protocols for reporting and investigation of harassment claims.

The practice of hiring a firm with which there is an existing relationship is standard because no hiring entity wants an independent investigation. What the hiring wants is trial prep. But saying you’ve hired someone to prepare your defense is terrible optics so they call it an independent investigation. No one should stand for this. The state and the feds should intervene and conduct their own investigations, which will be truly independent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure I understand the logic of those on here who are saying that because MCPS is paying Jackson Lewis, they are not independent. Wouldn’t that be the same for any outside investigator retained by MCPS? And the County Council has made clear this is an MCPS investigation and it doesn’t look like they choose to use whatever investigatory authority/resources they have in the schools (if any) to pursue this. So it’s either MCPS does it themselves or they pay someone outside to do it. I suppose it is the issue of payment from MCPS that has some questioning “independence” but it seems the only alternative right now to MCPS self-investigating.

It’s standard practice for companies that undertake to have an independent investigation conducted to hire a firm with which they have no pre-existing relationship. On its face, it suggests the firm will exercise independent judgment.

If you hire a firm with which you already have a relationship, the appearance of independence is compromised, because people will assume the firm is going to pull its punches to preserve the existing business relationship.

In practice, things are more complicated, because a firm is more likely to get hired to perform such an investigation even for a company or business with which it had no existing relationship if it has a reputation for being moderate, not digging too deep, and finding people other than those at the top to blame.

But in this case the fix would already appear to be in from the inception. A report will get prepared that calls for improving policies and processes, but the venality of McKnight and her gaggle of sycophants will not be fully revealed. And they’ll likely claim the full report is privileged and only release a summary with the recommendations to improve protocols for reporting and investigation of harassment claims.

The practice of hiring a firm with which there is an existing relationship is standard because no hiring entity wants an independent investigation. What the hiring wants is trial prep. But saying you’ve hired someone to prepare your defense is terrible optics so they call it an independent investigation. No one should stand for this. The state and the feds should intervene and conduct their own investigations, which will be truly independent.

The feds? What do the feds have to do with this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure I understand the logic of those on here who are saying that because MCPS is paying Jackson Lewis, they are not independent. Wouldn’t that be the same for any outside investigator retained by MCPS? And the County Council has made clear this is an MCPS investigation and it doesn’t look like they choose to use whatever investigatory authority/resources they have in the schools (if any) to pursue this. So it’s either MCPS does it themselves or they pay someone outside to do it. I suppose it is the issue of payment from MCPS that has some questioning “independence” but it seems the only alternative right now to MCPS self-investigating.

It’s standard practice for companies that undertake to have an independent investigation conducted to hire a firm with which they have no pre-existing relationship. On its face, it suggests the firm will exercise independent judgment.

If you hire a firm with which you already have a relationship, the appearance of independence is compromised, because people will assume the firm is going to pull its punches to preserve the existing business relationship.

In practice, things are more complicated, because a firm is more likely to get hired to perform such an investigation even for a company or business with which it had no existing relationship if it has a reputation for being moderate, not digging too deep, and finding people other than those at the top to blame.

But in this case the fix would already appear to be in from the inception. A report will get prepared that calls for improving policies and processes, but the venality of McKnight and her gaggle of sycophants will not be fully revealed. And they’ll likely claim the full report is privileged and only release a summary with the recommendations to improve protocols for reporting and investigation of harassment claims.

The practice of hiring a firm with which there is an existing relationship is standard because no hiring entity wants an independent investigation. What the hiring wants is trial prep. But saying you’ve hired someone to prepare your defense is terrible optics so they call it an independent investigation. No one should stand for this. The state and the feds should intervene and conduct their own investigations, which will be truly independent.

The feds? What do the feds have to do with this?

If the allegations in the Post story are true, then MCPS has violated Title IX. The Department of Education has a large office to investigate such things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure I understand the logic of those on here who are saying that because MCPS is paying Jackson Lewis, they are not independent. Wouldn’t that be the same for any outside investigator retained by MCPS? And the County Council has made clear this is an MCPS investigation and it doesn’t look like they choose to use whatever investigatory authority/resources they have in the schools (if any) to pursue this. So it’s either MCPS does it themselves or they pay someone outside to do it. I suppose it is the issue of payment from MCPS that has some questioning “independence” but it seems the only alternative right now to MCPS self-investigating.

It’s standard practice for companies that undertake to have an independent investigation conducted to hire a firm with which they have no pre-existing relationship. On its face, it suggests the firm will exercise independent judgment.

If you hire a firm with which you already have a relationship, the appearance of independence is compromised, because people will assume the firm is going to pull its punches to preserve the existing business relationship.

In practice, things are more complicated, because a firm is more likely to get hired to perform such an investigation even for a company or business with which it had no existing relationship if it has a reputation for being moderate, not digging too deep, and finding people other than those at the top to blame.

But in this case the fix would already appear to be in from the inception. A report will get prepared that calls for improving policies and processes, but the venality of McKnight and her gaggle of sycophants will not be fully revealed. And they’ll likely claim the full report is privileged and only release a summary with the recommendations to improve protocols for reporting and investigation of harassment claims.

The practice of hiring a firm with which there is an existing relationship is standard because no hiring entity wants an independent investigation. What the hiring wants is trial prep. But saying you’ve hired someone to prepare your defense is terrible optics so they call it an independent investigation. No one should stand for this. The state and the feds should intervene and conduct their own investigations, which will be truly independent.

I would love to see the state intervene. Any chance that could happen?

[Anonymous]

Are we sure the state dept of Ed should be investigating? Seems like they have their own bully they are protecting

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/07/21/mohammed-choudhury-maryland-schools-superintendent-criticism/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are we sure the state dept of Ed should be investigating? Seems like they have their own bully they are protecting

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/07/21/mohammed-choudhury-maryland-schools-superintendent-criticism/

LOL Touche! They have their own mess to clean up.

[Anonymous]

Lakewood to become a chaotic environment for our children and teachers. Parents and students reported multiple incidents of children being subjected to unjustified group punishment and public humiliation, where children were forced to perform push-ups or stand on the stage as punishment for being too loud at lunch or recess. As a direct result, some students

Alexandra Robbins: Please look into the prevalence of GROUP PUNISHMENTS in MCPS. Its very unfortunately part of the culture under current principal at Woodlin ES. Parents complain to no avail.