Another reason MCPS should kill gd the magnets.

Glad they are investigating now but very troubled it didn't happen when people came forward. Blair grad friend of mine just posted about this, & I asked him about it, since my daughter is headed to Blair magnet next Fall. He said it was the kind of thing where students thought he was creepy and weird but couldn't really point to "sexual harassment" or at least nothing worth the risk of complaining. They are now all realizing through #metoo accounts how that this was clearly harassment and how extensive it was. Still, some did complain, and it is frightening that nothing happened and that the program coord & teachers suggested it is out of their hands. Would this be pressure from the Superintendent? Weast & Starr? (& maybe the person before Weast, since this seems to have gone on form around '90 to '12). I have heard good things about Jack Smith in terms of integrity.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like he got out just when kids started carrying cellphones at all times. I hope that stops some of this behavior going forward.

I know - I love that people can now record this stuff so there’s no more ‘he said she said garbage’ - your sexist diatribe will be on YouTube tomorrow for worldwide judgement, baby!

Sounds like he got out just when kids started carrying cellphones at all times. I hope that stops some of this behavior going forward.

Omg, this man is ‘deeply hurt’ that his sexist, dismissive and demeaning behavior towards women means that he wasn’t , in fact, ‘one of the best teachers ever’. He must think that women don’t count for anything at all - how awful.
Why did the school let that go on? Do administrators at the school not regularly attend classes and advise teachers on problems that they observe? Do they not seek and absorb feedback from students and parents regularly? These are things that private schools do to make sure that things at school are going well - do they also do this in the public schools? If they don’t why not?! There’s no excuse for this having gone on for so many years.

Anonymous wrote:Starr allowed this sort of behavior. He looked the other way

The complaints go back to the 1980s.

Anonymous wrote:Back to say this is so infuriating and it' reminds me why I hate the HS stem magnet concept. This guy doesn't know genius he's an efeing HS teacher. Anyway, STEM doesn't require genius, it's just hard work that any sensible person could do. But so many people (Mostly boys) get into the math because of the outsized praise. Universities aren't just better at teaching the material they're also more clear eyed about what math ability actually is. There are issues everywhere but things improved for me after HS. Horrifying this happened so recently.

This is true. But somehow the young men that show up for these programs often label women as incompetent - might start with arsehole teachers in high school? Pathetic!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to say this is so infuriating and it' reminds me why I hate the HS stem magnet concept. This guy doesn't know genius he's an efeing HS teacher. Anyway, STEM doesn't require genius, it's just hard work that any sensible person could do. But so many people (Mostly boys) get into the math because of the outsized praise. Universities aren't just better at teaching the material they're also more clear eyed about what math ability actually is. There are issues everywhere but things improved for me after HS. Horrifying this happened so recently.

This is not about the HS STEM magnet concept. It's about a high school teacher who behaved inappropriately towards female students for decades while the school administration apparently did nothing to stop it.

Except this is a pattern of gate keeping that goes on in STEM, it's worse in the HS. The magnet concept amplifies that. Yes he's one guy but its a pervasive problem.

Starr allowed this sort of behavior. He looked the other way

Anonymous wrote:Back to say this is so infuriating and it' reminds me why I hate the HS stem magnet concept. This guy doesn't know genius he's an efeing HS teacher. Anyway, STEM doesn't require genius, it's just hard work that any sensible person could do. But so many people (Mostly boys) get into the math because of the outsized praise. Universities aren't just better at teaching the material they're also more clear eyed about what math ability actually is. There are issues everywhere but things improved for me after HS. Horrifying this happened so recently.

This is not about the HS STEM magnet concept. It's about a high school teacher who behaved inappropriately towards female students for decades while the school administration apparently did nothing to stop it.

Back to say this is so infuriating and it' reminds me why I hate the HS stem magnet concept. This guy doesn't know genius he's an efeing HS teacher. Anyway, STEM doesn't require genius, it's just hard work that any sensible person could do. But so many people (Mostly boys) get into the math because of the outsized praise. Universities aren't just better at teaching the material they're also more clear eyed about what math ability actually is. There are issues everywhere but things improved for me after HS. Horrifying this happened so recently.

Well, definitely. First sympathy is to the students he harassed but what is the legacy? He was one of these teachers that held more sway than his supervisors at times. Still how did the people who are still at Blair handle things and what else went on? How many female magnet teachers are there? Who influenced that hiring?

He can’t possibly be the only teacher guilty of this sort of garbage. Now that this letter has come out, it’s probably only a matter of time before things come out about people still teaching (not retired).

Sickening and so recent. This could take out people who are still at the school if they didn't handle things correctly.

Disgraceful. You’d think that especially with the magnet at Blair being so small to begin with, something like this shouldn’t have been ignored for so long.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/in-a-prestigious-high-school-math-and-science-program-alumni-say-metoo/2018/03/01/b17f68ac-f1b6-11e7-b390-a36dc3fa2842_story.html?utm_term=.c21aecdc9885