MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — An investigation unfolded in the Montgomery County Public School system (MCPS) after a former principal was allegedly promoted amid sexual harassment and bullying allegations. Now, a redacted version of a 33-page report documenting that investigation has been released.
In September, the Office of the Montgomery County Inspector General announced that it would open two investigations related to allegations against Farquhar Middle School Principal Dr. Joel Beidleman and Montgomery County Public Schools' (MCPS) handling of misconduct complaints. Officials claimed he was unanimously promoted during a June meeting to become the principal at an area high school – all while being under investigation for sexual harassment.
More than a week after the investigation was announced, MCPS said they would not release the full report. However, on Thursday, a heavily redacted version of the report was released to the praise of Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando who is also the chair of the Education and Culture (EC) Committee.
"I applaud the Board of Education for taking this important step forward in accountability and transparency for the families, students and staff within the school system," said Jawando. "It is only through transparency that we are able to have effective accountability and facilitate improvement in processes that protect our school community."
The 33-page report covers the scope of the investigation, the methodology, the timeline of key events and a summary and discussion of the factual findings.
According to the report, investigators spoke with 30 current and former MCPS employees. All of their identities have been redacted.
Some of the current and former employees were interviewed more than once and the School Board was also interviewed twice.
"In total, the investigators completed over 59 interviews of key MCPS personnel," the report reads.
In addition to interviews, investigators reviewed emails and text messages between witnesses, five Lighthouse Hotline incident reports filed between February and May, documents regarding three student-related complaints, and more.
"Over 30,000 documents were collected from the MCPS email accounts, and text message discussion threads were collected from 10 MCPS cellular phones," the report reads.
As for the findings of the investigation, the report states that while all student and formal complaints were looked into, no anonymous complaints were formally investigated.
Five complaints were reported anonymously through the Lighthouse Hotline, an independent third-party hotline provider. Investigators say those complaints, as well as an email that included several anonymous allegations, were received by the MCPS's Department of Compliance (DCI).
"All of these anonymous complaints were received by DCI, but none were formally investigated because DCI has a long-standing practice of not formally investigating anonymous complaints," the report reads.
As for the student complaints that were investigated, the report redacted what exactly those allegations were but says all three were investigated and resolved.
During an investigation into a complaint in February, some witnesses were interviewed and raised separate allegations but DCI reportedly did not investigate those allegations because they were not formally filed as complaints.
The report says MCPS leaders knew about that investigation while considering a promotion in June.
"[MCPS Leaders] knew about that investigation and failed to take reasonable steps to ascertain the nature of the allegations, preliminary findings of the investigation, and/or inform the Superintendent and the Board about the investigation," the report reads.
Investigators claim all of the information about the complaints was available to the Board prior to the promotion but was purposely ignored.
"There is significant evidence that this failure to inquire was intentional and/or designed to conceal the allegations," the report states.
This particular section of the report is heavily redacted but does say someone tried to prevent the promotion due to "limited knowledge about the pending investigation," but those concerns did not stop the Board from promoting Beidleman.
After learning of the investigation and an article breaking the story from the Washington Post, the report claims Beidleman was not promptly placed on administrative leave.
By July 19, the report claims leaders became aware of the investigation and the inquiries by the Washington Post but did not take immediate action.
"[REDACTED] did not put [REDACTED] on administrative leave until August 4, 2023," the report reads. "The decision to place [REDACTED] on administrative leave sixteen days after [REDACTED] learned about the investigation and [REDACTED] was due to imminent media coverage and detailed inquiries by the Washington Post."
The report then moves into a detailed timeline starting with a complaint filed by a parent in July 2017 and covers more than five years.
"Simple put, [REDACTED] was promoted while the investigation was pending because key decision-makers did not exercise diligence to ascertain important details about the investigation," the report's conclusion reads. "That failure is not as troubling as the failure of these key MCPS leaders to correct the mistake once those details were known after the promotion and to promptly notify the Board about the issue."
However, investigators found no evidence that anyone involved in the promotion attempted to conceal any complaints against Beidleman.
"Except for altering of the [REDACTED] Investigation timeline by [REDACTED] which had no impact on the promotion, no one involved with [REDACTED] promotion violated any MCPS policy or engaged in any intentional misconduct," the report says.
MCPS Superintendent Dr. Monifa B. McKnight released a statement Thursday evening, saying she believes that there are holes in the system that need to be fixed and called for accountability:
“I want to thank the Board for committing to releasing a redacted version of the Jackson Lewis report, which many in our community have asked for and is indeed an important step for restoring trust with our staff and community.
Following a careful review of the report, I believe that the public could see what I have seen: that there are holes in the system that we need to fix and that there is a need for accountability.
As part of building trust, I want to clearly communicate with our staff about where transitions in personnel are occurring.
That’s why last night, I shared with our administrators and supervisors information on personnel updates, and I pledge to keep our staff apprised of any additional updates.
I will also continue to listen to staff throughout the system as our team works diligently to put together the corrective action plan that the Board has charged me with developing while we continue to fully cooperate with ongoing investigations.”