A rally in support of LGBTQ+ youth and to demand accountability from school officials for an alleged pattern of anti-LGBTQ+ behavior is scheduled to take place tomorrow, Friday, July 28, at the Amherst Regional Middle School, according to MassLive.com.
Reports MassLive:
Community organizers in Amherst are staging a rally on Friday at the Amherst Regional Middle School, two weeks after the return of Amherst Superintendent Michael Morris, who took emergency medical leave in May.
The rally, billed as being staged to support LGBTQIA youth and demand “transparency, equity, and accountability” from school officials, has two goals, according to Katharine Waggoner, one of the organizers.
“The political goal of the rally is to bring attention to the demand that the school committee meet to review if Michael Morris should be placed on administrative leave, and the community goal is to provide visibility to the celebration of queer and trans youth,” Waggoner said Wednesday.
Waggoner identifies as queer and is also the chair of the Parent Guardian Organization of Crocker Farm Elementary School in Amherst. She said recent allegations of mistreatment of transgender students at the Amherst Regional Middle School have roiled the community, and that there have been many calls for Morris to be placed on leave as an investigation, begun in April, looks into some of those allegations.
Morris, reached Wednesday, declined to comment on the rally.
In May, Amherst High School’s student publication, The Graphic, published an extensive article outlining allegations of mistreatment of LGBTQ students by multiple middle school counselors and speaking about an investigation into a complaint related to Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.
Three school counselors were placed on leave as a result of the Title IX investigation. Morris announced a few days after the publication of the article that his doctor had ordered him to go on emergency medical leave, effective immediately.
Amherst’s teachers’ union called for an investigation into Morris’s leadership and for the immediate resignation of Assistant Superintendent Doreen Cunningham, who was identified by the Graphic’s reporting as being responsible for the hiring of the counselors involved in the alleged mistreatment of LGBTQ students.
Read the complete MassLive story here.
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