Former McAllen ISD Marketing and Communications Director Jake Berry exited the district last month after the discovery of inappropriate media on a school laptop assigned to him.
The district largely declined to comment on Berry’s exit, saying his last day of work was Feb. 3 and that his resignation became effective Feb. 28.
It’s not clear precisely what the photos and videos on the laptop depicted.
“I apologize for any harm or embarrassment I may have cause (sic) my family and the district,” Berry said in a statement to The Monitor. “I take full responsibility for my actions. I did not intend to leave my iCloud account logged in and I apologize that my personal pictures/videos were quickly visible by a few staff members. I understand that it was not appropriate and I apologize to everyone affected by this.”
On Feb. 7 the district told The Monitor there was no law enforcement investigating content on one of its laptops. On Feb. 17, the district said there was no active legal investigation regarding a laptop.
Berry says the media showed up on his computer accidentally because he was logged into his personal Apple account on it.
“The problem emerged when my account also logged into my pictures and those pics were visible on the cloud and the photos app,” he wrote. “This occurred on a 5 year old laptop that I had given back to my old department. As soon as I realized that my account was signed in, I logged out but it was too late, and the pictures were visible.”
The discovery of those photos and videos appears to have followed Berry’s removal from the post of communications director after an investigation into employees’ complaints about hostility and unprofessional working conditions in his office.
Those complaints, filed in November of last year, do not appear to reference the inappropriate media on Berry’s laptop that more immediately preceded his departure.
The district’s board of trustees discussed the findings of that investigation in early January.
By mid-January, Mark May — previously a communications specialist — had become the interim replacement for Berry. Berry apparently remained employed at the district in another capacity at the time.
May is now the permanent director.
In his statement, Berry criticized district leadership for his treatment since his subordinates filed complaints in November.
“I would like to express my concerns that there were so many leaks during the investigations and many of my colleagues and fellow educators are concerned that some members of this board cannot be trusted with confidential information, especially during an election year,” he wrote. “HR records were leaked to the media before any investigations had started. I feel all staff should be concerned that medical, personal/private information could be used against employees in the future, and I hope that the board and administration rectified this issue.”
Trustees themselves were displeased with the investigation regarding the complaints, voting last month to rescind their acceptance of its findings.
