MoCo school board ordered to pay $518K to former B-CC High teacher accused of racism

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ironically the BOE will get an update on legal fees YTD through April. Non SpEd legal fees alone are $3.8million!!!!

That's a good point, how much did they spend on attorney and staff time on this.

Apparently not enough on quality attorneys and staff if they didn't anticipate that having the BCC principal go on the stand and testify that he had made up quotes defaming the teacher would be a problem with the jury. They might have been able to settle this case for a lot less than $500k had they competent counsel at the beginning.

Actually I very much doubt they could have settled for less than this post discovery. The plaintiff lawyer probably has a lot invested at that point. And early on they might not have known the principal would be such a terrible witness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable. Glad the teacher got a favorable resolution after all that MCPS induced trauma but sad that there is 500k less going into our kids’ educations next year.

Does the MCPS Board have a budget line item to pay out lawsuits for its incompetence or do we just expect class sizes to be bigger next year?

This. The BOE needs to be held accountable as does Taylor and central office.

I’m just worried more lawsuits are coming as the political climate is very favorable to them.

Meanwhile, I have colleagues who are racist and there doesn’t seem to be anyway to dislodge them from positions working with our most vulnerable students.

Isn't that what the antiracism audit and action plan that MCPS spent millions of taxpayer dollars on in consulting fees and staffing supposed to be combatting?

It can only combat racism if there are consequences. This loss is going to scare MCPS off consequences for the people who need them.

It can only combat racism if it A knows what racism is and B knows how to combat it. They don't know either. They are literally failing at combating racism.

I can’t disagree with that, sadly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable. Glad the teacher got a favorable resolution after all that MCPS induced trauma but sad that there is 500k less going into our kids’ educations next year.

Does the MCPS Board have a budget line item to pay out lawsuits for its incompetence or do we just expect class sizes to be bigger next year?

This. The BOE needs to be held accountable as does Taylor and central office.

I’m just worried more lawsuits are coming as the political climate is very favorable to them.

Meanwhile, I have colleagues who are racist and there doesn’t seem to be anyway to dislodge them from positions working with our most vulnerable students.

Isn't that what the antiracism audit and action plan that MCPS spent millions of taxpayer dollars on in consulting fees and staffing supposed to be combatting?

It can only combat racism if there are consequences. This loss is going to scare MCPS off consequences for the people who need them.

I don’t know if that’s true-this was really a major, obvious on its face f up by mcps. I think there is hope they will aim for fewer gigantic f ups rather than throwing up their hands when faced with actual hate or bias incidents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable. Glad the teacher got a favorable resolution after all that MCPS induced trauma but sad that there is 500k less going into our kids’ educations next year.

Does the MCPS Board have a budget line item to pay out lawsuits for its incompetence or do we just expect class sizes to be bigger next year?

This. The BOE needs to be held accountable as does Taylor and central office.

I’m just worried more lawsuits are coming as the political climate is very favorable to them.

Meanwhile, I have colleagues who are racist and there doesn’t seem to be anyway to dislodge them from positions working with our most vulnerable students.

Don't blame this on the "political climate." The BCC principal admitted he fabricated evidence defaming a teacher on the stand. The jury didn't even have to deliberate for more than a few hours. MCPS had a crap case. But yes, I would be worried if this is the level of competence MCPS has. So much of our education tax dollars are going to go to pay out people who have legit claims of being harmed by MCPS.

Then why did the jury absolve him of responsibility?

Because he said a whole lot of people at MCPS approved his statement that fabricated evidence. The jury found the MCPS Board responsible.

How would they know though

The BOE is responsible for ensuring the superintendent has structures and people who are knowledgable, competent and responsible.

In this case, this ENTIRE chain of people failed:

- Chief of Schools Peter Moran
- Associate Superintendent Sean McGee

These people were responsible for supervising Mooney and reviewed his comms.

The BOE knew about McGee's role in this incident and DESPITE this, they just reconfirmed him as Associate Superintendent this school year.

And they reappointed Peter Moran as chief of schools:

McGee and Moran were also the chain of command above now-former principal Doug Nelson at Wootton.

They should have made an example out of Mooney, but instead made Nelson a scapegoat. Smh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ironically the BOE will get an update on legal fees YTD through April. Non SpEd legal fees alone are $3.8million!!!!

That's a good point, how much did they spend on attorney and staff time on this.

Apparently not enough on quality attorneys and staff if they didn't anticipate that having the BCC principal go on the stand and testify that he had made up quotes defaming the teacher would be a problem with the jury. They might have been able to settle this case for a lot less than $500k had they competent counsel at the beginning.

Actually I very much doubt they could have settled for less than this post discovery. The plaintiff lawyer probably has a lot invested at that point. And early on they might not have known the principal would be such a terrible witness.

Sounds more like they had a terrible case rather than the principal being a terrible witness. That the principal had defamed the teacher who reported to him would have been pretty clear early on.

[Anonymous]

How about telling the two kids you sit in your assigned seats and like it. And not everything in life is easy and stop blaming your mis interpretation on being black. No one wants to hear about it anymore.

[Anonymous]

The fact that Mooney admitted he made up part of the quote, and sent it out to the BCC community is absolutely shocking, and should have consequences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone just tell me if the guy is racist.

Based on the incident as described, I’d say no. This whole thing is absurd and I have no idea why anyone would sign up to be a teacher anymore.

“According to Engler’s complaint, Engler was attempting to keep 10th grade students in his health class in their assigned seats on Feb. 8, 2023, in an effort to help him learn their names. Two students later reported to an administrator that Engler said that if they didn’t sit in their assigned seats, he wouldn’t be able to tell them apart, which they believed he said because they are Black, according to Engler’s complaint.”

All this because the kids didn’t want to sit in their assigned seats?! And they blamed it on racism? That’s insane.

Can someone post the made up quote from the principal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So was the guy racist or not?

Yes but the jury thinks teachers should be able to make mistakes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So was the guy racist or not?

And here we pause for the posters who can not read but like to post.

And here is a poster who can’t just say “yes he was racist”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable. Glad the teacher got a favorable resolution after all that MCPS induced trauma but sad that there is 500k less going into our kids’ educations next year.

Does the MCPS Board have a budget line item to pay out lawsuits for its incompetence or do we just expect class sizes to be bigger next year?

This statement is in correct.

1) it’s paid by insurance
2) it’s not “each year”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So was the guy racist or not?

And here we pause for the posters who can not read but like to post.

And here is a poster who can’t just say “yes he was racist”

He wasn't racist. Or, rather, who knows if he's racist but the interaction he had with those students didn't sound racist, at least not to me when my kid came home all breathless telling me about it. It was knee-jerk anti-racist indoctrination at work. How sad when there is truly important work to do to end racism. MCPS is not helping end racism at all. The students have no idea what racism is, thanks to the ineffective, nonstop focus on it while at MCPS all day. I have been in classrooms where students LITERALLY -- yes, literally -- have called other students racist for using the word brown. How can MCPS change reality when they're in their own little bubble? I'm sure it's pretty brown where their heads are but it must be hard to see what's going on in the outside world with your head stuck up in there....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. between the Supreme Court loss and this, I hope MCPS has learned its lesson.

In the end they won the Supreme Court case, no books were removed and they don’t need alternate learning kids can stay home if they don’t like the book.

This case basically was a punt and said the teacher was allowed to make mistakes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone just tell me if the guy is racist.

Based on the incident as described, I’d say no. This whole thing is absurd and I have no idea why anyone would sign up to be a teacher anymore.

“According to Engler’s complaint, Engler was attempting to keep 10th grade students in his health class in their assigned seats on Feb. 8, 2023, in an effort to help him learn their names. Two students later reported to an administrator that Engler said that if they didn’t sit in their assigned seats, he wouldn’t be able to tell them apart, which they believed he said because they are Black, according to Engler’s complaint.”

All this because the kids didn’t want to sit in their assigned seats?! And they blamed it on racism? That’s insane.

Can someone post the made up quote from the principal?

This is not clear.

The teacher did say he can’t tell kids apart and he did also only say it to black kids but he didn’t say I can’t tell black kids apart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fact that Mooney admitted he made up part of the quote, and sent it out to the BCC community is absolutely shocking, and should have consequences.

People have no integrity any more so most people would just shrug at telling a lie. We can thank our president for that.