Montgomery County Public Schools has retained Baltimore law firm Jackson Lewis to look into “significant allegations of harassment and bullying involving one of our principals,” it said in a statement Monday, referring to allegations involving Joel Beidleman, the former Farquhar Middle School principalArrowRight
The school system is offering counseling services at Farquhar starting Tuesday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with assistance from the Department of Health and Human Services. Additional counseling services will be available for various groups, McKnight said.
One administrator who was present, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, said via text that some attendees got up “so we didn’t stand out.” He said “many” in attendance “want to see change occur in the appropriate way, not from cover ups and protecting and promoting. MCPS has a reputation of its leaders ‘failing up’ and this situation with Beidleman is just the most blatant example.
At Paint Branch High School, where Beidleman was set to become principal until The Post sent questions about his conduct to the district, the community is “angry and disgusted,” said Carolyn Parker, past president of the school’s parent-teacher association. “We need an MCPS #MeToo movement,” said Watkins Mill High School journalism and creative writing teacher Sara Goodman Confino, a 20-year district veteran who said she was “heavily bullied” by another district principal in the past. “If we had a culture that allowed you to report when you felt uncomfortable and you’d know something was going to happen, we could have a better work environment. But because we don’t, everyone just takes it, or they leave their school.
Several elected officials in Montgomery called for more transparency and accountability in the school system. In