Anonymous wrote:

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.

Not so sure. Seems quite likely that the misconduct was overlooked and tolerated because MCPS was desperate to hang on to the idea that it had a credible magnet program.

It does have a credible magnet program. The data speak for themselves.

The misconduct was tolerated because the people in charge valued this teacher more than they valued the students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walstein was sleazy due to his own issues. Yet, we are seeing a lot of overlap with kids not feeling adequate in high school, spilling decades later. Still inadequate, and still feeling bad about themselves, due to parenting or other issues, self image, etc, projecting onto Walstein, decades later. A lot of gray area.

What part of this is gray area?

None.

Anyway, first PP, how do we know your inadequacies don't have your sympathies arrested on that one HS teacher who praised you?

Anonymous wrote:Walstein was sleazy due to his own issues. Yet, we are seeing a lot of overlap with kids not feeling adequate in high school, spilling decades later. Still inadequate, and still feeling bad about themselves, due to parenting or other issues, self image, etc, projecting onto Walstein, decades later. A lot of gray area.

There is no gray area. None.

And no one is defending him. Not a single person.

Anonymous wrote:Walstein was sleazy due to his own issues. Yet, we are seeing a lot of overlap with kids not feeling adequate in high school, spilling decades later. Still inadequate, and still feeling bad about themselves, due to parenting or other issues, self image, etc, projecting onto Walstein, decades later. A lot of gray area.

What part of this is gray area?

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That is not what this is about. WTH.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue is not what this teacher said or did. The issue is that even when the parents complained about him, the administrators did not step in to give this guy lessons in sexual harassment. Where was the mandatory training to address sexual harassment of coworkers and students?

America condones sexism all the time. It is in our politics, our voting patterns, our social media and our TV viewing habits. It is evident in our policies about maternity leave, parental leave, lack of quality child care, inflexible workplaces, unequal pay.

I am going to chalk up the sexism to him being an ignorant old entitled White man who was raised to be sexist by his generation, family, gender, race and religion. However, the sexual harassment and abuse was not something that was considered decent even in those primitive times.

This is an indecent man. Not taking away from how good a Math Teacher he was but he was not decent in his behavior towards young female students.

Yes. And I’m outraged that he was allowed to continue being indecent at this school for so long.

+1. that's the problem. the fact school administration/mcps knowingly allowed him to continue teaching

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Not so sure. Seems quite likely that the misconduct was overlooked and tolerated because MCPS was desperate to hang on to the idea that it had a credible magnet program.

Exactly, schools often have a teacher with more clout than the administrators--a football coach, award wining band director--add outspoken magnet math teacher. It can't be easy for a first year principal to assess a situation that spans decades especially pitted against one of these oversized personalities. At least I think that's the timeline.

Anonymous wrote:In one MCPS middle school there's a male teacher who has been reported for spending too much time alone with female students, talking to them on social media, and even hanging out with them when he sees them in town. Parents have complained too. The problem is that while there are reasons to be concerned, there's no evidence that he's crossed the line. (He was told to get off social media, but that's the only thing I know for sure he's doing differently.) To the person who's well-versed in this, what should we all be doing in cases like these to protect kids? I know to tell CPS/police, but what can they do over just a "creepiness" factor? And also it's not always the creepy teacher. Sometimes it's the well liked dude who parents know hangs out with school leaders and is considered a great teacher and "cool". There's a real unwillingness to deal with this bs, and I'm over it too.

There are several things people in this situation can do. This is one of the reasons I demanded MCPS have a written code of conduct for employees and volunteers. After years of pressure, they finally implemented one. It is for exactly the reasons you list above. In my own children's elementary school there was a para educator who was emailing girls from his private email account, burning cds of love songs for girls, playing the "hugging game" with others, giving his phone to girls and letting them text pictures to his friends. The principal kept telling parents that it wasn't illegal and he was just young and naive. Once others brought it to my attention, I reported to police, cps, made the principal submit a report to MCPS central office and I reported to Andy Zuckerman and the whole "child abuse and neglect task force" they formed due to my advocacy. It's not my job as a parent to figure out if he is "young and clueless" or someone who was grooming children to sexually abuse them. What was / is my job not only as a parent but also as a mandated reporter due to my job, is report things like this to authorities, EVERY SINGLE TIME THEY HAPPEN and let them figure it out. I'm so glad to see you mentioned you knew to do this already....many parents do not.

So, they finally wrote an employee code of conduct so that things like you describe can be documented. If is a one off, ok...but if they see an emerging pattern of boundary violations they can get rid of people who think the rules don't apply to them. Clueless and naive or predator? Doesn't matter. If you think the rules don't apply to you, you shouldn't be around our children. Go work in central office and write curriculum.

Parents can and should:
- report everything they know to CPS / Police (special victims unit).
- report it all directly to Jack Smith in writing with the heading "Employee Code of Conduct Violations" Here is a link:
- http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedfiles/staff/0168.16_employeecodeofconduct_booklet_web.pdf -
- please note THEY HAVE REFUSED TO INCLUDE INFORMATION FOR PARENTS ON HOW TO REPORT VIOLATIONS. They have also refused to send this out when they send out the student code of conduct every year, which we as parents have to sign. Why not send this too?

- talk to your kids about feeling uncomfortable / uh oh feelings and tell them they should tell you if they feel that way even if it's someone you know, like, love or live with. There is an excellent online training for this, I wish it was 2 days ago bc they were offering it for free in February but even now, it's only 5 dollars to take it on line. Here is a link: https://www.d2l.org/education/additional-training/talking-with-children/

you might also want to share another training with friends about bystander intervention for exactly the type of situation you list. https://www.d2l.org/education/additional-training/bystander-intervention/


I hope this is not too much information. I strongly applaud you for following your gut feeling and asking for more help. Please let me know if you want more info. I obviously have a lot to say on this topic.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Not so sure. Seems quite likely that the misconduct was overlooked and tolerated because MCPS was desperate to hang on to the idea that it had a credible magnet program.

MCPS does have a credible magnet program. That's not the issue. The issues are the conduct of the teacher and the lack of action by the administration.

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.

Not so sure. Seems quite likely that the misconduct was overlooked and tolerated because MCPS was desperate to hang on to the idea that it had a credible magnet program.

It is terrible. I hope all parents on this board speak to their children (both sons and daughters) and talk to them about how behavior like this is never ok. Our daughters need to know that they can and should speak up and that we will support them and stand up for them and our sons need to know that they also have a responsibility to speak up and to back up their fellow classmates.

In one MCPS middle school there's a male teacher who has been reported for spending too much time alone with female students, talking to them on social media, and even hanging out with them when he sees them in town. Parents have complained too. The problem is that while there are reasons to be concerned, there's no evidence that he's crossed the line. (He was told to get off social media, but that's the only thing I know for sure he's doing differently.) To the person who's well-versed in this, what should we all be doing in cases like these to protect kids? I know to tell CPS/police, but what can they do over just a "creepiness" factor? And also it's not always the creepy teacher. Sometimes it's the well liked dude who parents know hangs out with school leaders and is considered a great teacher and "cool". There's a real unwillingness to deal with this bs, and I'm over it too.

Anonymous wrote:The issue is not what this teacher said or did. The issue is that even when the parents complained about him, the administrators did not step in to give this guy lessons in sexual harassment. Where was the mandatory training to address sexual harassment of coworkers and students?

America condones sexism all the time. It is in our politics, our voting patterns, our social media and our TV viewing habits. It is evident in our policies about maternity leave, parental leave, lack of quality child care, inflexible workplaces, unequal pay.

I am going to chalk up the sexism to him being an ignorant old entitled White man who was raised to be sexist by his generation, family, gender, race and religion. However, the sexual harassment and abuse was not something that was considered decent even in those primitive times.

This is an indecent man. Not taking away from how good a Math Teacher he was but he was not decent in his behavior towards young female students.

Yes. And I’m outraged that he was allowed to continue being indecent at this school for so long.

The issue is not what this teacher said or did. The issue is that even when the parents complained about him, the administrators did not step in to give this guy lessons in sexual harassment. Where was the mandatory training to address sexual harassment of coworkers and students?

America condones sexism all the time. It is in our politics, our voting patterns, our social media and our TV viewing habits. It is evident in our policies about maternity leave, parental leave, lack of quality child care, inflexible workplaces, unequal pay.

I am going to chalk up the sexism to him being an ignorant old entitled White man who was raised to be sexist by his generation, family, gender, race and religion. However, the sexual harassment and abuse was not something that was considered decent even in those primitive times.

This is an indecent man. Not taking away from how good a Math Teacher he was but he was not decent in his behavior towards young female students.

That article is incredible.