Abrams Accused parent of plagiarism

The Montgomery County school board's evening meeting was dangerously close to spinning out of control.

Board member Stephen N. Abrams' public reprimand of a volunteer coordinator from an African-American parent group had provoked an uproar in the audience.

People were shouting and demanding an apology. Others interrupted board President Patricia B. O'Neill as she attempted to continue the meeting, and asked for those who were standing to find seats or leave the room.

O'Neill pounded the gavel and demanded order in the boardroom.

After several minutes of near chaos, order was restored, the crowd quieted and the meeting continued.

But in the aftermath of the May 23 meeting, parents and leaders of county school and civic organizations said that Abrams' attack on Thomas D. Broadwater Jr. was the most vivid example of bad behavior from a board that some feel does not welcome public scrutiny of its actions.

"It seems right now to be a chaotic situation with almost every representative group that comes before [the board]," said Cindy Kerr, president of the county council of PTAs.

Not every board member is part of the problem, said Kerr, Broadwater and others. Most pointed to Abrams (Dist. 2) of Rockville as a catalyst for contention between the board and the public. Others cited O'Neill's curt manner in stopping speakers at the end of their two-minute allotted speaking time and her occasional rebuttals to their testimony.

Abrams made no apologies for his behavior at the May 23 meeting or for the in-your-face style that board colleagues and others said he has displayed through three non-consecutive terms on the board.

He said he does not think the exchange with Broadwater will make people reluctant to testify before the board.

"I would hope not," he said. "But on the same token I would hope people would be prepared to withstand challenges to what they're saying."

O'Neill (Dist. 3) of Bethesda said she is "not happy" with how the May 23 meeting unfolded.

During the meeting, Lois Wilkins, a member of a group called African American Parents of Montgomery County requested that O'Neill apologize for allowing Abrams to lash out at Broadwater. Members of the audience applauded the request, prompting O'Neill's call for order.

Broadwater had just testified before the board when Abrams and Deputy Superintendent Frieda K. Lacey accused him of trying to take credit for increasing the number of African American and Hispanic students accepted to the schools system's middle school magnet programs for the 2005-06 school year. School staff has been working toward that goal for years, Lacey said.

"Joe Biden learned when he ran for president that you get in a lot of trouble when you plagiarize and when you take credit for somebody else's work," Abrams pointedly told Broadwater.

Broadwater, who denies the charge, called Abrams' comments "insulting" and stood to leave the boardroom, calling on group members in the audience to follow.

The day after the meeting, county council of PTAs President Cindy Kerr said the episode had "really, really shaken a lot of the most stalwart supporters of the school system and of the board."

O'Neill called the incident "regrettable," adding, "Everyone should be treated with respect, board members included."

Kerr approached Broadwater outside the boardroom after the exchange with Abrams.

"I was appalled that they would answer back in a public comment like that," she told Broadwater. "We support you, and the PTA is absolutely flabbergasted. They treat us all like that at one time or another."

Robert Astrove has been there. A special education advocate from Rockville who unsuccessfully ran in the District 2 primary against Abrams last year, Astrove is a frequent speaker during the public comment portion of board meetings.

He has incurred Abrams' wrath, he said, recalling an exchange during Abrams' last term on the school board, from 1998 to 2002, when Astrove questioned the school system's budget numbers.

Abrams "just went off," Astrove said.

"He does this," said Astrove, adding that he voted for Abrams in last year's general election.

Still, Astrove said, he worries about the message Abrams sent at the last board meeting.

"They need public support for their budget," Astrove said. "And they're going to have a hell of a time getting public support if they continue to do this to the public. Why should the public support them if they don't listen to the public?"

There is already some sense that the board's "relationship with the community has deteriorated," Broadwater said.

"No one should have to fear that if they go before the Board of Education and stand up for their kids and their beliefs that they will be attacked and defamed on live cable television by rogue members of the BOE or by MCPS employees," he said.

O'Neill and Abrams said that board members have the right to clarify inaccurate information in public comments, though most of the contention with Broadwater's group seems to have come from e-mails sent by various members to the group's listserv, and from a March 22 meeting between group members and board members O'Neill, Abrams and Charles Haughey (At large) of Rockville.

Board members often need to address issues raised during public comments to head-off misunderstandings that could cloud policy discussions later on in the meeting, O'Neill said.

But Kerr said that some board members have gone beyond that.

"I [feel] that a rebuttal to the public comment at the table is bullying, it's condescending. ... It's not constructive," she said. "It's not a dialogue. It's getting the last word."

Board member Valerie Ervin (Dist. 4) of Silver Spring agreed.

"I was very disturbed by the tenor of the discussion that went on here tonight," Ervin said during the May 23 meeting. "And as we talk about bullying in our schools I feel that a lot of bullying went on here tonight."

Henry Hailstock, president of the county chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he was cut off when he wanted to respond to a statement O'Neill made after his testimony about ethics questions involving member Valerie Ervin.

Hailstock said he has the impression that the board is trying to discourage public testimony "from what they've done to me and what they've done before Mr. Broadwater."

"For them to try to dissuade the community from [testifying] through their actions is appalling," he said.

Blair G. Ewing, the former county councilman who also spent 22 years on the school board, including service with Abrams, said verbal jabs at community members send the wrong message.

"It says 'If you summon your courage to come and speak before the board we're going to lay into you and wish you never showed up,'" Ewing said.

In an attempt to make meetings flow better, O'Neill said the time for comments by the superintendents and board members will be moved from the end of the agenda to immediately following public comments at the June 14 board meeting. The move is on a trial basis.

Broadwater's comments on May 23, calling for "moral justice" for African-American students seeking admission to rigorous academic programs, were "generally fine," O'Neill said.

"[But] in general over the past six months or so we've had individuals who come and have had outrageous statements or incorrect information," she said.

She cited testimony about the sex education curriculum, block scheduling at Northwood High and a replacement school for Seven Locks Elementary as containing inaccuracies and sometimes "incendiary" allegations.

The executive board of the county council of PTAs planned to take up the school board's relationship with the public at a meeting on Thursday, Kerr said.

Members of several groups, including the county council of PTAs, the NAACP and groups representing gifted and talented and special education interests also are meeting to discuss the issue.

In trying to explain the community reaction, Abrams pointed to the board's May 23 agenda. The board acted against the wishes of county PTAs in approving a revision to the school system's facilities planning policy and voted to dissolve the Citizens Advisory Committee that approved controversial new sex education curriculum that two organizations are challenging in federal court. Then there was the incident with Broadwater.

"When you have a confluence of these issues and you have a group of people walking away disaffected, you get people saying 'What was that all about?' and 'This is the start of a new coalition,'" Abrams said. "And usually it isn't."