Assistant School Superintendent Files Discrimination Complaint
Assistant School Superintendent Doreen Cunningham. Photo: Youtube /screen shot
Assistant School Superintendent Doreen Cunningham has filed a discrimination complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) against the Amherst Regional Public Schools. The complaint charges the Amherst Regional School District with discrimination under Massachusetts General Law and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Named in the complaint are Superintendent Michael Morris, and Acting Superintendent Doug Slaughter.
Cunningham has been on administrative leave since May 19, 2023, and is a likely target in an ongoing Title IX investigation of alleged discrimination against LGBTQIA+ students at Amherst Regional Middle School (see e.g. here, here, and here).
Morris, in an email to the school committee dated July 26, said, “We are working with legal counsel to develop a response to the complaint and look forward to defending the district in this matter.”
MCAD has scheduled an investigative conference with the parties on March 13, 2024.
Cunningham is represented by Amherst attorney Peter Vickery.
The complaint alleges that “Respondents discriminated against Complainant on the basis of race/color (Black/African-American), sex (woman) and religion (association with Christians).” The complaint also alleges that members of the staff union, the Amherst Pelham Education Association, “harbor animus toward the Complainant because of her role in increasing diversity in the workforce.” The complaint also cites the Amherst Regional High School student paper, The Graphic, and their advisor, Sara Barber-Just, for “publishing allegations and innuendo regarding the Complainant with the goals of causing her to resign.” The full complaint can be read below.
Read additional coverage in:
The Daily Hampshire Gazette
MassLive and here
Boston Globe
The Full Complaint
Discrimination based on race or sex is reprehensible and illegal.
However, in this case, tacking these claims onto the central complaint seems a rather gratuitous diversion from that obfuscates the core issue. We should ask ourselves two questions:
If any school administrator hired two councilors from their church, one of whom subsequently hired their daughter, and then all 3 went on to proselytize their religious beliefs in a way that was psychologically endangering students they were contacting, would their behavior be acceptable?
Did the potential charges related to race and sex of this administrator complicate and delay appropriate oversight by the superintendent?
Amherst will be on the hook for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills, and even more if a court finds in Ms. Cunningham’s favor. It is vitally important that our community fully understands the facts of this case, so that we can insure that nothing like this can ever happen again.