After months of protests and investigation, the three Amherst Regional Middle School guidance counselors accused of numerous complaints concerning their conduct with LGBTQ+ students have been cleared by an administrator in the school’s district.
But the spokesperson for the “group or parents, educators and staff and community members formed in August to advocate for accountability, transparency and equity” in the Amherst, Massachusetts school district strongly disagrees with the decision, according to a report by Mass.Live.com.
Reports MassLive.com:
An Amherst administrator has cleared three Amherst Regional Middle School school counselors of accusations that they violated the federal Title IX statute, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.
The counselors were accused of misgendering and calling students by a previous unused name – a practice known as “dead-naming” — among other complaints, according to a records request by MassLive.
The determination letters written by interim middle school principal and high school principal Talib Sadiq stated that the counselors’ actions, while offensive in many cases, didn’t deny any student equal access to the district’s educational programs or activities.
Ali Wicks-Lim, a spokesperson for the ad hoc LGBTQIA+ Caucus of Amherst — a group or parents, educators and staff and community members formed in August to advocate for accountability, transparency and equity in the Amherst district — wrote in a statement to MassLive that Sadiq’s determination letters have been difficult to obtain and that the district has done “everything in their power to avoid making these documents available to the public.”
As a result, that’s undermined public trust and transparency, Wicks-Lim said.
Wicks-Lim wrote that Sadiq’s finding that the counselors didn’t violate Title IX is “outrageous” and the district’s “unwillingness to be accountable for the harm done to LGBTQIA+ students” is causing “further harm” to LGBTQIA+ students and families.
“To suggest that students can be mistreated to the point of a mental health crisis without there being an impact on their ability to access educational programs or activities is ridiculous and demonstrates exactly how ARPS [Amherst Regional Public Schools] fails to recognize, acknowledge or address systemic harm,” Wicks-Lim said.
The decision comes after an investigation report by attorney Edward Mitnick of Just Training Solutions, LLC, of Springfield, determined Amherst-Pelham Regional Public Schools failed to effectively address claims of harassment and misconduct by middle school staff against LGBTQ+ students.
Read the complete MassLive.com story here.
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