Officers were called to the school in Silver Spring following a self-search by the student. As a result of the search, parts of a personally made firearm, or ghost gun, were located.
Around 12:45 p.m., the security staff had confiscated part of a ghost gun from the male student. The school staff then called police...
Now, some lawmakers are calling for a special hearing in Annapolis to learn more about what Fox45 News has exposed.
“It's potentially a crime that has been committed for willfully deleting public records,” said Ryan Nawrocki, a Republican state delegate representing Baltimore County. “I'm extremely concerned. Some of my other colleagues are also very concerned.”
The Baltimore County representative, over the past few months, has been watching Project Baltimore’s investigation into Maryland State Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury. Project Baltimore discovered that text messages on the superintendent’s state-issued cell phone were deleted, even after we filed a public record request to see them, which could be a violation of state law...
Around 10:20 p.m. on Aug. 28, officers with the Rockville City Police Department responded to the 700 block of Rockville Pike for a report of an assault...
Teen stabbed several times after multiple juveniles involved in fight in Rockville (fox5dc.com)
The BCC student newspaper The Tattler first reported about the potential for this lawsuit to be filed in March of this year.
The Complaint has now been filed and is shown below.
Note item #133 in the Complaint states:
133. As a result, and in retaliation for the newspaper’s critical coverage of Mooney’s mishandling of numerous issues over the past academic year, on or about June 1, 2023, Mooney relieved the newspaper’s faculty advisor of her position.
Also see #171 - 178 titled Administrative Proceedings which discusses the MCPS internal administrative processes.
The full text of the Complaint as filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court on August 21, 2023, is shown below and at the Scribd link.
Daniel Engler Complaint Against Shelton Mooney and Montgomery County BOE by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland on Scribd
MCPS is having a very difficult time producing the Jackson Lewis law firm contract.
This is our request for the contract, which we submitted on August 14, 2023:
This is a request under the Maryland Public Information Act.
I am seeking a copy of the recent contract between the Montgomery County Board of Education / MCPS and the Jackson Lewis law firm. Specifically, I am seeking a copy of the contract that covers the services that have or will be provided to the Board of Education and MCPS that are related to the significant allegations of harassment and bullying involving former BOE/MCPS employee Joel Beidleman.
The document that I am seeking may be sent to me by email or may be mailed to me at:
(address)As the requested document should be readily available, I ask that it be provided without undue delay. There should be no need to wait 10 business days or 30 days to fulfill this request.
Please promptly acknowledge receipt of this request.
Thank you for your anticipated fulfillment of this request.
Today, August 24, 2023, we received the letter below from MCPS.
Three quarters of Maryland public school students failed the state’s math tests in grades three through eight this spring, an indication of just how much math students didn’t learn during the year of Zoom classes, and how difficult it has been for teachers to catch them up...
MCAP scores: Maryland schools recovered on English tests, but not in math - The Baltimore Banner
§ 3-903 - Meetings :: 2013 Maryland Code :: US Codes and Statutes :: US Law :: Justia
The Board of Education has not held a legally constituted session since July 20, 2023.
The Montgomery County Board of Education has not met and has not taken any action in open or closed session to address the Beidleman investigation or to hire an investigator.
Ms. Silvestre speaks for only herself in the letter shown below.
During the previous school year, 42,863 out of about 160,000 students were deemed chronically absent, meaning they missed 18 or more days of school, which is 10% of the school year.
During the 2018-2019 school year, 30,349 students were chronically absent.
According to MCPS statistics, during the previous school year, 30% of African American students receiving free or reduced meals were chronically absent. More than 42% of Hispanic students receiving free or reduced meals were chronically absent.
At the high school level, 36% of students were chronically absent...
MCPS Declares War on Chronic Absenteeism - Montgomery Community Media (mymcmedia.org)
Students return to campus for the 2023 school year in just seven days--on August 28.
Months ago--some students experienced symptoms like "headaches and nausea" off and on during construction at the school.
"Earlier on there was kind of debris and dust as they were walking outside the buildings in between classes, and then later on--the air quality, indoor and outdoor, strong tar smells, kids getting sick," parent Cindy Fang described...
(WBFF) — The Maryland State School Board is running out of time to make a decision on whether the current superintendent will receive a new contract.
Right now, State Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury earns more than $300,000 a year to oversee the operation of Maryland public schools, which involves billions of tax dollars. But his future as superintendent is in doubt...
Auditors keep a close eye on school district contracting in Maryland — and if you’re wondering why, just look at what happened in May in Montgomery County.
After auditors raised suspicions, the district’s former assistant director of transportation pleaded guilty to stealing over $320,000 from the county’s school system over a span of at least five years by misusing district purchasing cards and mismanaging a contract for the purchase of school buses.
What’s more, several state audits in recent years raised serious questions about contract spending in other Maryland public school districts. Richard P. Henry, Maryland’s inspector general for education, acknowledged the possibility that officials in other school districts could be misusing the school contracting system.
“You know, we don’t find out all the time, but there will always be some individuals who will take advantage of flaws in the system, and you know, possibly profit from it or use it to their advantage,” Henry said.
County or district officials frequently audit local school districts in Maryland. On top of that, the state Office of Legislative Audits reviews the books of each school district once every six years, whereas the Maryland Office of the Inspector General for Education takes complaints from the public and investigates them...
Audits show trouble lurking in school contracts – CNS Maryland
In March 2021, Congress allocated $122 billion for schools to cope with the Covid pandemic and its aftermath — to hire tutors, retain teachers or improve their facilities. Public health and clean air advocates hoped that this would lead to widespread improvements in classroom ventilation and air quality to help ward off future pathogenic threats and reduce problems like dust, allergens and wildfire smoke.
But only about 34 percent of school districts said they used any of the money to upgrade their heating ventilation and air-conditioning systems, according to a recent survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 28 percent more installed in-room air cleaners, 8 percent said they installed ultraviolet lights — a more expensive and complicated method — and the rest reported no changes that would substantially improve air quality.
Moreover, once the federal spending was approved, aggressive salespeople descended on school officials who were struggling to open. School officials often were persuaded to spend more for products that many scientists believe aren’t substantially more effective than cheaper alternatives that have been thoroughly studied. Some of the products could even be dangerous...
Two Montgomery County Council members requested Monday that state and county watchdogs investigate the county school system’s handling of reported allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and retaliation by former Farquhar Middle School principal Joel Beidleman...
As stakeholders of this system, we call on the Board of Education to fulfill its oversight duties and diagnose and disclose the failures that occurred. The system has failed. The public deserves an explanation, commitment that actions will be taken to rectify the process, and full visibility into the progress of those actions...
...Brian Lancaster is the father of a Poolesville rising tenth grader. Like Anderko, Lancaster submitted testimony to the school board in May suggesting ways to reduce student exposure to construction hazards, like updating air quality monitoring data on the construction project’s webpage and conducting regular meetings with community members and health experts. He said to his knowledge, school officials never pursued his suggestions. He described MCPS as performing “lip service” about the Poolesville project and said he’s been discouraged by the lack of transparency and two-way communication with central office staff.
“We’ve come up with strategies and alternatives, and they politely nod their head yes but don’t listen to us at all,” he said. “As parents, that’s our biggest ask—just consider the alternatives we’re coming up with and respond to us directly.”..
MCPS pledges ‘frequent communication’ on Poolesville HS project (moco360.media)
The IG finding City Schools Staff Investigations Unit lacks a written policy regarding self-incrimination, which potentially places employees at risk during internal investigations. This lack of a written policy, which is known as a Garrity Warning and is similar to Miranda Rights, according to the IG's report, raised major concerns among local, state, and federal prosecutors. As a result, those prosecutors declined to consider criminal charges...
On Wednesday, DOE lawyers met with Weisberg and his chief executive, Christopher Groll, asking them to explain why they doled out salary increases to Amanda Lurie and her boss, Chief Enrollment Officer Sarah Kleinhandler, said a source close to the situation.
They also asked Weisberg whether he shared an explosive Office of Special Investigations report on the misconduct with Chancellor David Banks, the source added.
The meeting came days after The Post revealed the findings against Lurie, senior executive director in the Office of Enrollment, and Kleinhandler, who is accused of failing to supervise Lurie...
NYC DOE lawyers grill deputy chancellor on 'cover-up' (nypost.com)
The Parents' Coalition had filed a Maryland Public Information Act request and upon receipt of our request, we were contacted by the Center for School Safety for a telephone conference with their staff attorney Dawn Luedtke. Dawn Luedtke is now a Montgomery County Councilmember.
The documents we obtained showed that MCPS had not complied with Maryland law with regard to reporting serious incidents. ABC7 reported on this revelation.
MCPS gave the excuse that their Chief Safety Officer, Edward Clarke, was not aware of the filing requirements. But Edward Clarke was formerly the head of the Maryand Center for School Safety and had lobbied for the creation of that office.
On June 27, 2023, the Montgomery County Board of Education appointed a new Chief Safety Officer, Pamela B. Wheeler-Taylor.
“Can we come in and visit with you?” one asked.
The detectives sat down on a couch and quietly told her that Jay was found next to the Metro tracks near the Rhode Island Avenue station that afternoon. They said it appeared he had been videotaping himself for social media when he slipped while riding atop a Metro train, a practice known as subway surfing — an escalating problem for some major transit agencies...
...The 15- and 16- year-olds interviewed for this article, who attend high schools in Fairfax County, Montgomery County and the District, said they had been riding on top of or between trains for the past year or so...
Jay Thirunarayanapuram, 15, died while subway surfing this summer. - The Washington Post
The Post’s Alexandra Robbins and Nicole Asbury laid out a pattern of sexual harassment, threats, retaliation and more by Mr. Beidleman in his time as assistant principal at Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown and Lakelands Park Middle School in Gaithersburgand as principal at Farquhar Middle School in Olney. Many of the episodes were reported verbally or in writing to MCPS, including in a complaint by a social studies teacher whom Mr. Beidlemen allegedly told, “You should just f--- me” and “Shave your p---y and sell the hair.” Mr. Beidleman denies many of the accounts in the story...
...As of August 4, MCPS placed Beidleman on “extended leave” and initiated an independent external investigation into the claims. In June, Beidleman had been promoted to principal of Paint Branch with a 20% raise in salary...
ROCKVILLE, Md. - Montgomery County’s school board is facing heavy criticism for its decision to hire its own private law firm to investigate a principal who’s been accused of sexual harassment and bullying.
County Executive Marc Elrich spoke out Tuesday about the school board getting to choose who investigates them. MCPS has hired a Baltimore law firm that’s represented them before, and for both Elrich and parents, that’s raising major concerns about whether the probe will be truly independent...
Jenni Coopersmith wants to know what took so long?
She is a former Montgomery County Public Schools para-educator and parent who told FOX 5 she complained to school officials years ago that she and her daughter were harassed. That was back in 2016, and now six years later, that same principal faces 18 allegations of sexual harassment and bullying.
MCPS has highlighted the firm’s specialty in education and employment law, to which Gross asked, “What the hell does employment have to do with sexual harassment and child abuse?”
“This principal was making lewd, sexual comments to children,” Gross said, in reference to allegations that Beidleman described middle school girls dressing and acting “like hoes and thots” during two 2018 Farquhar assemblies. “This move is akin to telling someone who has a broken leg to go see a dermatologist. Why? Because a dermatologist won’t know what they’re looking for, so who’s going to come out looking rosy on the other side?”..
McKnight pledges ‘open communication’ in Beidleman investigation (moco360.media)
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (7News) — "It's the wrong firm, with the wrong focus," Janis Sartucci of the Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland told 7News.
The longtime Montgomery County resident and former Montgomery County Public Schools parent is talking about Jackson Lewis P.C. law firm.
The Washington Post reports MCPS has hired the law firm to conduct the investigation into sexual harassment allegations against former Farquhar Middle School Principal Dr. Joel Beidleman.
"The firm is already working for MCPS. They received payments in fiscal year[s] 2023 and 2022," she said...
