4,900 MCPS hires have not been submitted for CPS background checks. "100% Your Children are Not Safe"

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (7News) — A new report from the Montgomery County Inspector General just revealed that almost 5,000 of the district's hires have not been checked out for past violations with the state's Child Protective Services (CPS) division.

So, who's spending time with your kids in schools?..

..."100%. Your children are not safe in MCPS from people who may choose to harm them sexually," said Jennifer Gross, a licensed clinical social worker...

https://wjla.com/features/i-team/montgomery-county-public-schools-background-checks-sex-offender-mcps-education-marc-elrich-child-protective-services-safety-education-classroom-maryland-oig#

McKnight Became Superintendent and MCPS stopped posting Notification Letters on MCPS Child Abuse and Neglect Webpage

Over many years, advocates for the protection of children from sexual abuse/harassment/rape in MCPS schools pushed for MCPS to post all of the Community Notification Letters relating to these matters that they sent out in one place. These letters would serve as a reference for past and current families and students.  

MCPS did that. For a time.

But when Superintendent Monifa McKnight took over MCPS, those notification letters stopped being posted to the MCPS Child Abuse and Neglect website. 

The last Community Notification Letter to be posted was in December of 2021.  

The purpose of this listing is that so this information is available to anyone in Montgomery County, not just those families who have children in one school at the time of the incident, arrest or conviction.  Why is that important? Because MCPS has a long history of moving around suspected and known sexual predators. Often when an arrest is made parents discover that the MCPS employee had worked in multiple classrooms, schools or locations. 

When Monifa McKnight became MCPS Superintendent, MCPS became less transparent about these cases.

Here are some of the Community Notification Letters that could have gone out after December of 2021 and are not shown on the MCPS Child Abuse and Neglect website. 

FY 2023:

• A security assistant was arrested on one count of sexual abuse of a minor and one count of 

displaying obscene items to a minor. 

• A volunteer football coach was arrested on multiple charges of sexual offenses. 

• A football coach was arrested on multiple charges of sexual offenses. 

• A volunteer photographer was arrested on multiple charges of sexual abuse of a minor. 

• A building service worker was arrested on multiple charges of sexual offenses, including a 

charge of sexual abuse of a minor. 

Melissa Curtis:  https://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2023/11/what-did-mcps-mocoboe-know-and-when-did.html

FY 2022: 

- A bus operator is charged with one count of sexual abuse of a minor and one count second degree assault stemming from his work as a private driving instructor. 

"They [MCPS] have intentionally created an environment where these things flourish and thrive to the detriment and significant harm to adults and children inside the system," said Jennifer Gross, an MCPS parent.

...The suit claims the woman was not only a victim of the harassment by Beidleman, but that school officials did not act on complaints. Parents who’ve been pushing for MCPS to explain how Beidleman was promoted despite multiple complaints told FOX 5 they expect more lawsuits to come.                                                             

"They have intentionally created an environment where these things flourish and thrive to the detriment and significant harm to adults and children inside the system," said Jennifer Gross, an MCPS parent...

Second lawsuit filed against MCPS amidst principal’s harassment and bullying investigation (fox5dc.com)

Hearings planned over MCPS principal's alleged harassment, bullying

 Hearings planned over MCPS principal's alleged harassment, bullying (fox5dc.com)

Fox 5 news: Parents say MCPS ignored complaints about principal for years @mcps @mocoboe

https://www.fox5dc.com/video/1264996

ROCKVILLE, Md. - Calls for accountability are intensifying among some Montgomery County teachers and parents who say they’ve complained for years about a principal’s harassment and bullying, but nothing was done. 

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.

Jennifer Gross: “What the hell does employment have to do with sexual harassment and child abuse?” #BeidlemanInvestigation @mcps @mocoboe

...Bethesda-based licensed clinical social worker Jennifer Gross specializes in the field of child abuse and neglect and has conducted sexual harassment and abuse prevention trainings on a national level. Gross expressed extreme skepticism about the school district’s hiring of Jackson Lewis to conduct the investigation into itself and Beidleman.

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)

MCPS parents react after high school principals' sexual harassment allegations uncovered

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (7News) — Long-time Montgomery County Public Schools educator Dr. Joel Beidleman received a warm endorsement from the Board of Education at a meeting on June 27.

Every school board member approved the promotion of Beidleman from Principal of Farquhar Middle School to Principal of Paint Branch High School despite numerous allegations of sexual harassment, threats, retaliation as well as workplace bullying...

...Former MCPS student and parent Jennifer Gross has worked to improve child abuse and neglect policies within MCPS.

“This situation that has come to light is not surprising,” Gross said.

Gross is pushing for full transparency from the school system and wants MCPS to release a full unredacted report once the investigation into the allegations is complete...

MCPS parents react after high school principals' sexual harassment allegations uncovered | WJLA

“MCPS to this day continues to put these loopholes in and allow men like Kirk Shipley to operate with impunity, and who was paying the price? Our children,” said Gross.

Former Whitman High School teacher sentenced to 3 years in prison for sexual abuse of students

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (DC News Now) — Former Walt Whitman High School teacher and rowing coach Kirk Shipley was sentenced to 3 years in prison for sexually abusing students.  

Shipley, 48, worked at MCPS for nearly 20 years. According to court documents he sexually abused two former students and rowers on the crew team on multiple occasions between 2013 to 2018 at his home in the district.

Jennifer Gross — a Whitman alum, parent and certified sex offender treatment provider — said she wrote a letter in 2018 detailing issues in MCPS’s response to reports of student abuse and blames the district for victim-blaming procedures...

Former Maryland high school teacher sentenced for sexual abuse of students (dcnewsnow.com)