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The most active thread since my last blog post was titled, "Washington Post article about Fromer Farquhar Administrator" and posted in the "Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)" forum. As the title suggests, the thread is about an article in the Washington Post describing allegations against Montgomery County Public Schools Principal Joel Beidleman. Beidleman had been the Principal at Farquhar Middle School but was recently appointed Principal of Paint Branch High School. The Post article describes 18 reports of inappropriate conduct by Beidleman that include "harassment, threats, retaliations, workplace bullying and other inappropriate conduct spanning at least 12 years". Many of the allegations involved sexual harassment. Despite these reports of misconduct, the Post says that Beidleman has been a rising star in MCPS and his most recent promotion would have seen his salary increase almost six-fold. Needless to say, nearly all of those responding in this thread are outraged by what is described. The MCPS administration, including Superintendent Monifa McKnight, is accused of covering up Beidleman's misbehavior and there are many calls for McKnight to resign or be fired. For many of those responding, what the article describes is emblematic of the corruption and toxicity of MCPS in which employees fail upward — being promoted after failing — and rampant bullying is allowed. Some posters in the MCPS forum have repeatedly argued that MCPS concentrates on equity and diversity rather than fundamental academics leading to a decline of the school system. For those posters, Beidleman — who is Black — represents all that they have been warning about. In their view, his faults were ignored in order to promote a Black principal in the interest of diversity. Even posters inclined to be a bit more charitable are agree that Beidleman, a Black Male in a field often dominated by White women, might not have been given as close scrutiny as others might have been. MCPS has promised an external investigation but, for the most part, posters in this thread are pessimistic that there will be any real reckoning within MCPS. Posters repeatedly express doubt that this controversy will result in additional transparency or reforms to improve the system, let alone punishment for those who turned a bind eye to Beidleman's alleged misbehavior for over a decade.