OIG Releases MCPS Complaint Details
The number of complaints about Montgomery County Public Schools received by the county’s Office of the Inspector General showed an eight-fold increase in the past year, with 185 complaints filed from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. That’s compared with 22 from the year before, according to data published by The Washington Post last week.
While the individual complaints are considered confidential, OIG today released a list of ten broad categories into which they can be characterized. They include the following:
-- Complaints regarding the Department of Compliance and Investigations (DCI) and its handling of bullying and sexual harassment allegations against former MCPS Principal Joel Beidleman, and demanding a Board of Education (BOE) inquiry of the matter.
-- Complaints regarding MCPS waiting to announce its eclipse closing decision until 5:23am on the day of the eclipse.
-- Complaints regarding lack of transparency in disclosing results of the BOE Inquiry into DCI and its handling of bullying and sexual harassment allegations against former MCPS Principal Joel Beidleman, and demanding independent legal counsel be engaged to review the matter.
-- Complaints regarding a teacher or administrator intentionally inflicting emotional distress by confiscating a student's cell phone and causing them to break multiple Snapchat streaks.
-- Complaints regarding the obfuscation of results of independent legal counsel's review of transparency and disclosures in the BOE Inquiry into DCI and its handling of bullying and sexual harassment allegations against former MCPS Principal Joel Beidleman, and demanding the Office of the Inspector General perform an inquest of the matter.
-- Anonymous complaints about Laura Stewart's hair traced to Bethany Mandel's IP address.
-- Complaints regarding the redaction of certain information from the OIG Inquest into the obfuscation of results of independent legal counsel's review of transparency and disclosures in the BOE Inquiry into DCI and its handling of bullying and sexual harassment allegations against former MCPS Principal Joel Beidleman, and demanding an Ombudsman examination of the matter.
-- Complaints regarding parents' inability to opt-out students from horticulture curriculum that includes hermaphroditic plants and sexually suggestive vegetables.
-- Complaints regarding costs associated with the Ombudsman Examination of redactions made to the OIG Inquest into the obfuscation of results of independent legal counsel's review of transparency and disclosures in the BOE Inquiry into DCI and its handling of bullying and sexual harassment allegations against former MCPS Principal Joel Beidleman, and demanding an audit of the matter by a firm of Certified Public Accountants.
-- Complaints regarding the firing of Superintendent Monifa McKnight.
