Key Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) administrators “did not exercise enough diligence” when approving the promotion of former Paint Branch High School Principal Joel Beilelman despite complaints of sexual harassment and bullying against him.
Montgomery County Board of Education (BOE) released a summary of the report, but not the full report, on X Thursday. The report was conducted by the law firm Jackson Lewis and sent to the Board of Education Sept. 8.
The report did not include any recommendations for subsequent actions.
In Board of Education President Karla Silvestre’s summary, she noted that the names and other personnel information, “including those who may be subject to discipline,” were not included in her summary, as allowed by law.
The Jackson Lewis staff interviewed 30 current and former employees. Because some of the information the lawyers gathered was contradictory, they actually conducted 59 interviews.
Board members were interviewed twice.
They also reviewed more than 30,000 documents, including emails and texts from 10 MCPS cellular phones. The firm used a third party to obtain electronically stored information.
According to the report’s findings, “Dr. Beidleman was promoted while he was being investigated by MCPS because key decision-makers did not exercise enough diligence to ascertain important details about the investigation. Specifically, multiple members of the administration, who were part of the promotion process, knew that Dr. Beidleman was under an active investigation at the time of the promotion. Those individuals did not inquire about the specific nature of the allegations.”
The report also cited that after Beidleman was promoted, key MCPS leaders did not act and did not “promptly notify” the BOE about any allegations. Jackson Lewis found no evidence that BOE members were aware of the allegations prior to approving Beidleman’s promotion on June 27.
According to the report, the BOE does not have any way to automatically learn that a candidate for promotion or transfer to a different school is under investigation.
MCPS has a long-standing practice of not investigating anonymous or informal complaints. In this case, MCPS did not interview witnesses or even Beidleman.
MCPS, instead, waits, until a former complaint is filed, according to the report. Yet in the law firm’s opinions, many of the informal complaints warranted investigation.
Montgomery County Education Association “Outraged”
After reviewing Silvestre’s summary, Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA). issued a statement. “The investigators echoed our concerns that MCPS brazenly ignored our members’ urgent pleas. There were systemic failures at every level within MCPS. We are outraged to learn how extensive the cover-ups, negligence, and abuses of power were.”
The teachers’ union statement also noted that the summary “confirms that senior management at MCPS failed in their duty to protect students and staff from an alleged predator. Instead, the summary also concludes that senior MCPS management knew there was an ongoing investigation and did not bother to inquire as to what the investigation was about– they were too preoccupied with finalizing the principal’s latest promotion.”
Therefore, the statement continued, “MCPS created a culture where victims were silenced by fear of reprisal. A vicious cycle went unchecked, allowing this rampant abuse to continue.”
MCEA noted it was “alarming” that Jackson Lewis did not detect that the “Board of Education had knowledge of any investigations into the alleged serial harasser whose promotion they applauded.”
The statement noted, “We also, find it curious that Jackson Lewis uncovered 30,000+ documents during their investigation, but somehow could not find emails sent by MCEA members and staff to the Board of Education, MCPS, and Superintendent McKnight outlining the harassment claims.”
