Members of the Montgomery County Council grilled the superintendent for the county school system for hours Thursday about the investigation into a principal who was promoted despite being accused of sexual harassment and bullying.
Superintendent Dr. Monifa McKnight told the Council's Education and Culture Committe she did not know about the internal investigation into Joel Beidleman when the school board unanimously approved his promotion to principal of Paint Branch High School in June. But that promotion was put on hold when The Washington Post reported in August the allegations against him.
"Given that I’m the superintendent today, it’s my responsibility to correct it and to ensure that this does not happen again," McKnight told News4.
Earlier this month, the school board said an outside investigation found "significant and troubling" failures regarding Beidleman's promotion. It revealed that Beidleman was accused of sexual harassment and bullying more than a dozen times over seven years. The accusations happened while he was principal at William H. Farquhar Middle School.
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Officials said Thursday that some anonymous and informal complaints against Beidelman were not investigated.
"The board understands how important it is that we correct this action for our students, our families and our staff," Montgomery County School Board President Karla Silvestre said at the hearing.
"There is a strong commitment to uncover, expose and, most importantly, address those issues," McKnight told the Council.
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Several council members described the promotion as a failure and said MCPS had lost public trust.
"What people knew, when they knew it - that's all part of this and there needs to be not only accountability for the perpetrator of these allegations, but the people who did or didn’t do their job," Montgomery County Council At-Large Member Will Jawando told News4.
Council members also voiced concerns that independent investigators with a law firm didn't discover complaints about Beidleman that were emailed to the school board.
McKnight confirmed that emails are deleted after one year and she wasn't familiar with how they're archived.
McKnight said she identified areas to begin reforming the process to check for red flags and make sure candidates are fully vetted before the board votes on promotions.
Leaders urged McKnight to publicly release the investigation records.
The county inspector general has opened a separate investigation and vowed to issue a public report.
