Guest editorial: The fall of Berlin’s wall

by Hank Martin

 

Rebecca Berlin’s statement released Saturday evening is demonstrative of her self-evident hubris and ignorance.  

 

One would correctly assume that after publicly chastising Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley and staff, for challenging on ACPS’s Title IX, only to subsequently see three upper echelons indicted and arrested for Title IX violations, Berlin would learn. She has not.

 

The central issue is not whether Albemarle County Public Schools (ACPS) can express concern, promise improvements, or point to policies already on the books. It is whether the institution entrusted with the safety of children had effective safeguards, whether legally required reports were made promptly, whether leadership responded appropriately when warning signs emerged, and whether the School Board has demonstrated the accountability its office demands of everyone else.

 

Berlin specifies Virginia Code § 63.2-1509  which provides a particularly important standard for examining those questions: covered professionals who have reason to suspect child abuse or neglect must report it immediately. 

 

The statute permits certain school personnel to notify the person in charge or a designee instead of reporting directly, but that authority comes with a corresponding obligation for the designated official to forward the report forthwith. The law also requires cooperation with child-protective investigations, subject to applicable legal restrictions.

 

This  distinction matters enormously in evaluating institutional responsibility. A reporting policy is not proof that reporting occurred. A chain of command is not proof that the chain worked. 

 

An expression of concern after a crisis is not an accounting of what went wrong.

 

When the ACPS board, those individuals  entrusted with protecting children, must be pressed by its own governing community to demonstrate that it can fulfill that obligation, the problem is no longer merely procedural, indeed, it is  institutional.

 

Be it inadvertently, or by arrogance, Berlin reveals more through what she chose to emphasize than through what she intend to explain.

 

 The Saturday evening, October 17, statement issued by Berlin, Chair of the ACPS, is one such moment. Presented as a conciliatory response to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors’ October 15 resolution, it acknowledges deficiencies, promises cooperation, and invokes the dedication of ACPS employees. 

 

However,  beneath its carefully measured language lies a far more troubling reality: the very institution now asking for partnership has not adequately demonstrated to the public that its own safeguards, reporting practices, oversight, and accountability mechanisms are sufficient.

 

Since June 4, Albemarle County has witnessed a succession of revelations involving alleged sexual offenses against children, criminal charges against school administrators for alleged failures to report child abuse, leadership upheaval, disputes over investigative records, and mounting demands for transparency. 

 

These are not isolated public relations inconveniences. They concern the safety of children entrusted to the ACPS and the integrity of the adults charged with protecting them.

 

The question Berlin’s letter must answer is not whether ACPS employees care about children, but rather, whether the ACPS leadership established, maintained, and enforced systems capable of protecting them.

 

Berlin’s statement falls far short in  adequately answering that question.

 

 

Berlin’s assertion that ACPS employees understand their mandatory reporting obligations and are trained to report directly to social services or child protective services IS NOT the defense she self-evidently believes it to be.

 

Virginia Code § 63.2-1509 REQUIRES designated professionals who have reason to suspect child abuse or neglect to report IMMEDIATELY!. It permits certain school personnel to notify the person in charge or a designee instead, but that official MUST then forward the report forthwith. The law also recognizes that an individual need not make a duplicative report when that person has actual knowledge that the same matter has already been reported.

 

These provisions establish a legal duty, not a public relations talking point.

 

Training establishes what an employee has been taught, however, it does not establish what happened when an actual allegation emerged. With each passing day since 4 June, we are observing exactly what happened, or rather, did not happen when reports were made 

 

A written policy establishes what should happen. It does not establish that the policy was followed, that reports reached the proper authorities, that records were preserved, or that responsible administrators acted without delay.

 

The arrests of former Hollymead Elementary Principal Joseph McCauley, Deputy Chief Human Resources Officer Brodie Downs, and Assistant School Division Counsel and Title IX Coordinator Erin Stone on charges of failure to report child abuse make those distinctions impossible to dismiss and raise serious questions about whether the institution’s reporting safeguards operated as intended.

 

If personnel were properly trained, what happened between training and the alleged failures? Were procedures followed? Were supervisory decisions documented? Did the system contain safeguards against delay, misinterpretation, or suppression? Were concerns escalated when the normal chain of command failed?

 

Repeating that employees are trained is not an answer to evidence that the effectiveness of the system itself requires scrutiny.

 

 

Berlin welcomes the Supervisors’ resolution as an offer of support and proposes a joint work session in November. Collaboration is sensible. Cooperation between governing bodies is necessary, however; collaboration cannot become a substitute for accountability.

 

The Supervisors did not simply offer encouragement. Their unanimous October 15 resolution called for stronger mandated reporting policies, protections for whistle-blowers, an anonymous reporting mechanism, a publicized crisis management plan, an independent review of Freedom of Information Act compliance, and state level scrutiny of reporting practices.

 

Those demands are significant precisely because confidence in existing arrangements has been damaged.

 

The logical defect in Berlin’s response is that it emphasizes the value of working together without first providing a sufficiently concrete accounting of why these corrective measures are necessary. A request for cooperation does not negate the obligation to explain institutional failures. Nor does the fact that the Supervisors lack direct authority over school operations absolve the School Board of its independent responsibility to govern effectively.

 

The ACBOS are not attempting to become school administrators. They are exercising their public responsibility to raise concerns, request corrective action, and represent taxpayers and families who have lost confidence. Salute and acknowledgment to Sally Duncan.

 

Berlin inaccurately believes that the appropriate response is  merely, “Let us work together.” A true effective SB Chair’s response should be: What failed? Who was responsible for each process? What has been independently verified? What safeguards are being implemented, by whom, and by what deadline?

 

Anything less risks turning collaboration into an exercise in managing public dissatisfaction rather than correcting the conditions that produced it.

 

 

Berlin acknowledges that ACPS has failed for too long to invest in essential systems and infrastructure, citing deficiencies in FOIA responses, records management, and databases that impair efficiency and accuracy in tracking and reporting public information. THIS ADMISSION deserves more attention than the carefully diplomatic language surrounding it.

 

ACPS is  responsible for thousands of students and employees cannot treat records management, accurate reporting, and reliable information systems as optional administrative conveniences. These are components of institutional control. In matters involving alleged child abuse, their importance is especially acute.

 

A deficient database does not provide an excuse that a mandated report was missed, or for a delayed FOIA response. Berlin’s  acknowledgment of deficiencies demands investigation into whether the shortcomings affected reporting, record preservation, interagency communication, or oversight.

 

That raises another question: Who was responsible for ensuring these systems were adequate?

 

The superintendent manages division operations. Administrative personnel implement policies and procedures. The SB governs at the policy and oversight level, establishes expectations, and holds the superintendent accountable. These responsibilities are distinct, but they are not mutually exclusive.

 

Berlin’s acknowledgment of longstanding deficiencies therefore raises an unavoidable governance question: If essential institutional systems were inadequate for too long, what did the Board know, what did it do, and why were the deficiencies not corrected sooner? Why did the SB year after year, while asking for ever increasing financial resources, utterly FAIL to appropriate sufficient funds towards the adequate reporting metric as required by Title IX?

 

Sustained investment may be necessary, and additional expertise justified, yet neither explains why deficiencies persisted, nor establishes whether warning signs were missed, or relieves leadership of the duty to determine what corrective action is required.

 

 

Berlin is right that ongoing criminal proceedings, personnel confidentiality, student privacy, and applicable law limit what ACPS can disclose publicly, but she fails to establish the crucial distinction between protecting confidential information and withholding institutional accountability.

 

The public need not be given victims’ identities, confidential personnel files, protected investigative evidence, or details that could compromise criminal proceedings. It can, however, reasonably demand explanations of reporting protocols, supervisory responsibilities, policy revisions, audit findings when lawfully releasable, and measurable steps to prevent recurrence. The 10 June Hollymead Townhall meeting and the comment by the acting ACPD, makes this quite clear. 

 

Transparency does not mean disclosing everything. It means disclosing what can lawfully be disclosed while explaining what cannot, why it cannot, and when further information may become available.

 

Invoking legal constraints without supplying meaningful, permissible information risks deepening the very distrust that Berlin says she wishes to repair.

 

The same principle applies to whistle-blowers. If employees fear retaliation, embarrassment, or professional consequences for reporting concerns, a policy manual alone will not establish that they are protected. The ACPS must demonstrate that employees have safe reporting channels independent of potentially implicated supervisors and that complaints receive documented, impartial review.

 

The ACBOS’s demand for such protections is not bureaucratic interference, rather, a recognition that safeguards must work even when the ordinary chain of command does not.

 

 

Berlin invokes the thousands of ACPS employees who care for students every day. They deserve fairness and recognition. They should not be collectively condemned because individuals have been accused of serious wrongdoing or because institutional systems have come under scrutiny, and one could easily agree. 

 

Dedication of ordinary employees cannot serve as a shield against examining the decisions of those entrusted with leadership.

 

Conscientious teachers and staff members deserve a system in which reporting obligations are unmistakable, concerns are taken seriously, records are preserved, and no employee must wonder whether following the law will jeopardize a career.

 

The children and families of Albemarle County deserve the same.

 

ACPS’s  character is not measured merely by the intentions of its best employees. It is measured by the safeguards it establishes, the misconduct it detects, the failures it corrects, and the accountability it demands from those in authority.

 

Commending dedicated employees is appropriate, utilizing them and their dedication as a smoke screen to soften scrutiny of leadership is not.

 

 

The crisis did not begin with the October 15 resolution. Nor can it be resolved by scheduling a meeting in November.

 

The arrests and allegations, the controversy surrounding ACPS’s handling of the Swiney investigation, the superintendent’s departure, and the subsequent reporting-related charges have made institutional credibility a central public concern. The SB’s own decision to commission an independent investigation on August 4 further underscores the need for findings that can withstand scrutiny. The public should be told what the investigation covers, what it establishes, and what corrective action follows, subject to lawful confidentiality restrictions. 

 

Sadly,  in this endeavor,  Berlin leads a SB into hiring an already established law firm, currently employed to defend the ACPS system in numerous legal suits currently. Yet, Berlin and her cohorts refuse to simply do the most logical course of action, hire a true Independent 3rd-party investigative team.  

 

Why Berlin cannot accept the simple fact that no parent, no teacher, no taxpayer,  WILL EVER ACCEPT, without question, any reported findings that Harman, Claytor, Corrigan & Wellman, P.C. will offer.

 

What Berlin and the SB must do, but seems unable or unwilling to do, is establish a verifiable timeline of reporting and decision making where legally permissible; clarify the responsibilities of administrators, supervisors, and designated reporting officials; independently assess whether existing policies were followed; protect employees who raise concerns in good faith; and publish a corrective-action plan with responsible officials, deadlines, and measurable outcomes.

 

Berlin and the SB must also explain how the Board will independently verify that those measures work.

 

That is the difference between promising reform and demonstrating it.

 

 

Berlin’s Saturday letter seeks cooperation at a time when the public is demanding something more fundamental: evidence that the ACPS, entrusted with its children can be trusted to protect them.

 

Her acknowledgment of deficiencies is important and her alleged  willingness to work with the ACBOS is welcome, but neither is sufficient.

 

A mandatory reporting system is only as dependable as the people who operate it, the safeguards that govern it, and the leadership that insists it function properly. Training is not compliance. Policy is not implementation. Confidentiality is not immunity from scrutiny. Collaboration is not accountability.

 

ACPS’s institutional failure cannot be corrected by carefully managing the language used to describe it.

 

The ACPS SB can no longer  be permitted to hide behind the principle of “confidentiality” when legitimate questions about governance, oversight, and public accountability remain unanswered.

 

The children of Albemarle County are not the subjects of an institutional communications strategy, in case Berlin and the SB she chairs has forgotten, they are the very reason the SB exists.

 

Their safety is not a public relations objective, a budgetary consideration to be deferred, or an administrative inconvenience to be explained away after the fact. It is a fundamental responsibility.

 

The SB must now demonstrate, through independent scrutiny, documented corrective action, and sustained transparency, that it understands the difference between holding office and fulfilling its duty.

 

Until it does, expressions of concern and promises of collaboration will remain precisely what they are: words awaiting proof.

 

Principal sources

 

* [Cville Right Now — October 17: School Board statement and request for a joint work session](cvillerightnow.com/news/208802-albemarle-county-school-board-requests-joint-work-session-with-board-of-supervisors/?utm_source=chatgpt.com).

 

* [Cville Right Now — October 15: Supervisors’ resolution and requested reforms](cvillerightnow.com/news/208802-albemarle-supervisors-call-on-school-board-to-tighten-reporting-policies/?utm_source=chatgpt.com).

 

* [Code of Virginia § 63.2-1509 — mandatory reporting requirements](law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodeupdates/title63.2/section63.2-1509/?utm_source=chatgpt.com).