Montco school board official falsely claimed Inquirer reporter was ‘under investigation’
In an email, the board member wrote that her statement “was not as accurate” as she thought, and she will clarify her remarks publicly.
During a March 26 meeting of the Souderton Area School District’s board of directors, board member Kim Wheeler alleged that an Inquirer journalist “right now is under investigation with the Philadelphia police for misleading information, and reporting on inaccurate information.”
But Sgt. Eric Gripp, a Philadelphia police spokesperson, said that the department does not conduct criminal investigations into journalists for their reporting, which “falls squarely under protected speech and free press rights under the First Amendment.”
Wheeler’s allegation concerned a March 18 Inquirer story that showed top leaders of the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit had used public funds to pay for about $40,000 worth of professional-development travel to three continents, including a 14-day African safari.
Wheeler said during the meeting that she had spoken to Regina Speaker, the intermediate unit’s executive director, who had gone on some of the international trips, and that “definitely a lot was taken out of context.”
Yet Speaker had not requested a correction on the story, which was written by William Bender. Wheeler did not mention Bender during the meeting by name.
On Tuesday, Wheeler walked back her remarks about the police investigation.
In an email, she wrote that her statement “was not as accurate” as she thought and was based on information that Speaker had provided the MCIU board, of which Wheeler is also a member.
“I will say that when we were first told that the writer was under investigation, details were not shared and I was going by the word of Dr. Speaker,” said Wheeler, a Republican.
She added that she plans to clarify her comments at the next Souderton school board meeting, and noted that an ad hoc committee is being formed to investigate the MCIU trips.
“I do not believe the districts should have paid for these trips and would like to make sure this does not happen again, especially after learning how many of the MCIU staff members don’t have enough supplies for their students and have had to pay out of their own pocket for actual professional development training,” Wheeler said.
The MCIU, a state-mandated agency, has a $198 million budget and 848 employees, and provides support services to more than 200 public and private schools.
Speaker has previously defended the foreign trips as legitimate professional-development affairs and said she followed proper spending procedures.
Reached by email Tuesday, Speaker shared a link that she had sent to the MCIU board, which proved to be a 2023 news release from a city agency that had complained about a different Inquirer story that Bender had written. That release made no mention of a police investigation.