“Witch hunt.”

That was the cry when three councilwomen and School Committee member Karen Bachus demanded to know what actions were taken when it was revealed former Gorton science teacher Mario Atoyan had drawn penises on the arms of two female students.

There was more to it than simply a request for a chronology of administrative actions.

Three school administrators were targeted as being responsible and were identified in a vote of no confidence approved by the City Council.

And then, or course, there is the investigation performed at the request of the school committee that has been kept under wraps since attorney Vincent Ragosta issued his findings in May. The report was considered confidential.

That didn’t sit right with many. Three complaints, which have yet to be ruled on, were brought to the Attorney General on grounds the Ragosta should be a public document. Then the city council stepped in and issued a subpoena that the committee produce the report. The committee contested the subpoena, thereby landing the matter in court.

Last week the committee lost its argument that the report is confidential under attorney-client privilege in a bench ruling issued by Superior Court Associate Justice Bennett Gallo. Portions of the report considered attorney-client privilege and the names of students and parents are to be edited from the transcript of Ragosta’s oral report to the committee, but by and large the report will be made public. That could happen this week.

This is an end to a chapter that has served as a divisive force between members of the city administration and the school committee. A ruling has been issued and judging from the response of school committee Chair Jennifer Ahearn, it will be followed.

Naturally, the contents of the report may raise more questions and result in additional actions. Additionally, as Ahearn said during a committee meeting this summer, the administration has taken actions to ensure future complaints of this nature are appropriately handled. That’s a positive and it’s reassuring that changes have already been made in response to Ragosta’s findings.

What remains to be publicly revealed is how administrators treated complaints. It may not be a pretty picture, and it may tarnish the reputations of some individuals who have devoted much of their lives to Warwick schools with positive outcomes.

But, as the expression goes, “it is what it is.”

And that, we believe, is better than imagining what it isn’t if the report was to remain under wraps.