Letter: An Open Letter To The Regional School Committee: You Are Gambling With Children’s Lives

I am just going to get to the heart of the matter, as hard as it is to write. It is a matter of sheer grace that none of the children who faced ongoing transphobic bullying from peers and counselors at ARMS died by suicide. According to studies out of Yale University, victims of bullying are between 2-9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims. 

The statistics speak for themselves. Take in the following from the Trevor Project website:

·       people aged 10 to 24 and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth are at significantly increased risk.

·       LGBTQ youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers.

·       The Trevor Project estimates that more than 1.8 million LGBTQ youth (13-24) seriously consider suicide each year in the U.S. — and at least one attempts suicide every 45 seconds.

·       The Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth.

Further, the American Journal of Public Health states that “youth who reported undergoing conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to report having attempted suicide and more than 2.5 times as likely to report multiple suicide attempts in the past year.”

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I invite you to pause here for a moment. Picture the face of a child you cherish. now replace every single number in the above statistics with that face. 

* * * 

Our schools should be safe havens from experiences like bullying and tactics related to conversion therapy, i.e. using religious beliefs to shame and coerce LGBTQIA+ youth. Instead, these abuses occurred at ARMS in plain sight. 

Distraught staff, educators, and parents repeatedly followed reporting protocols in attempts to interrupt the harm and protect these children. Superintendent Mike Morris himself was made aware of these issues multiple times. He did not take action.  

No matter one’s opinion of Morris’s tenure as superintendent, there is simply no denying that Morris’s failure to respond to complaints was a potentially deadly abdication of responsibility.

As Mike Morris himself confirmed at a Regional School Committee meeting on January 17, 2023, the superintendent ultimately makes all hiring decisions. These ARPS employees grievously abused their positions and are now on administrative leave as we await results from several Title IX complaints and other investigations – while Morris himself is back to work. 

Today’s community message from the district office will placate many people. In the first paragraph, Morris writes: “It is clear that our systems have not worked to provide that environment for all students at all schools in our district.  As such, structural changes are needed to respond to the concerns and experiences that have been shared with me.”

This reference to “our systems” makes it sound as if said systems exist somehow independently of the people who create and uphold them. 

There is a great deal missing from this 2023-24 plan, including: 

a) any professional ownership of this debacle,
b) any clarification of how this new plan will ensure that similar failings in the future will be handled swiftly and appropriately,
c) perhaps most importantly, any acknowledgment of parents such as Maxine Oland, who asked Morris explicitly for many of these same policy changes on multiple occasions throughout the 2022-23 school year. 

Now the superintendent is presenting them, positioning himself as a strong leader, and taking credit for some of the very ideas he ignored when they came from an aggrieved mother of a harmed child. 

Where was this leadership when policies that were already in place were violated last year? 

* * *

Twelve-year-old Mallory Grossman died by suicide after being relentlessly bullied by peers. Grossman was a student at Copeland Middle School in Roseland, NJ. According to a recent New York Times article, Mallory “was a cheerleader and gymnast who loved the outdoors, her parents said. They had no reason to believe that she was depressed or had other medical issues, they told The New York Times in 2018. However, she would often tell them that she was having bad days at school.” 

Her parents, Dianne and Seth Grossman, sued the school district on the basis that school administrators “[failed] to take bullying complaints seriously.” 

They were just awarded a $9.1 million settlement. 

* * * 

Here in our community, 14-year-old Z Vamosy’s recollection of who they were upon entering middle school is painfully reminiscent of the description of Mallory Grossman before the bullying at school began. Speaking to a MassLive reporter at the July 28 rally at ARMS, Vamosy said they were a “happy, thriving young individual” when they started ARMS. 

Vamosy, a rising ninth-grader, is recovering after six months of homeschooling, but the months of transphobic abuses have taken a toll. 

The MassLive coverage also reports: 

“They [district administrators] heard and they did nothing,” Vamosy said, referring to the administration, especially when the bullying was the worst during seventh grade.”

“While some of Vamosy’s teachers would make accommodations for them to use a side door to get into class and leave a few minutes early in order to avoid some of the bullying, Vamosy said they still didn’t feel safe at school.”

Vamosy was not alone; other LGBTQIA+ students suffered similar abuses. Some of them and their parents shared their stories at Friday’s rally. If you had been there, it’s hard to imagine you would not have been moved to act. 

I had the privilege of standing next to Z during the rally on Friday. As we sang and chanted, they held up a sign that read; “Be accountable, You hurt me.” 

* * * 

With a new school year just a month away, many teachers and staff have expressed feeling silenced given that you have not taken a stronger stance by placing Mike Morris on administrative leave. In light of everything we already know – regardless of the investigator’s findings – this seems the only reasonable and appropriate response.  

Critics of those calling for accountability have suggested that we are somehow rushing to judgment. The opposite is true; we have spent months listening, researching, gathering information, asking critical questions, and creating as holistic and comprehensive an understanding as possible of what occurred at ARMS over the past couple of years. 

What is clear is this: Students could have died. 

Morris made a choice. He looked the other way. He heard but did not listen. He received information and did not act on that information. Numerous parents and ARPS employees have bravely spoken out, sharing their knowledge and verifying these facts. 

You were elected to serve on the Regional School Committee. The superintendent serves at your employ, and you serve at the employ of us, the community of the Amherst Regional Public Schools. 

We are parents, artists, professors, teachers, social workers, nurses, undergraduates and graduate students, Ph.D. candidates, journalists, attorneys, special educators, early childhood educators, LGBTQIA+ educators, and public health experts. We are queer, straight, cisgender, transgender, and nonbinary individuals. We are parents, godparents, stepparents, grandparents, neighbors, and allies. We are White, Black, Asian-American, and Latine. We are Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Catholic, agnostic, and atheist. We are young, middle-aged, and elderly. 

Collectively, we have devoted countless hours to learning everything possible about this situation. Nothing we are asking of you is rushed or superficial. We have done our homework. 

I find it ironic and troubling that in a town full of so many highly educated people, it is those calling for accountability who are being labeled as “reactive.” In my estimation, the official communication out of the ARPS offices has been reactive, meticulously worded, and presented to appear as if the district is being responsive, while in practice covering up its lack of responsiveness. 

* * * 

I feel responsible not just for my own children’s experiences in our schools but for yours, as well. I want all of our kids to know they can go to school and trust that the people in charge have their best interests at heart and will do anything possible to ensure their academic, psycho-social, and emotional success. 

One would hope that an individual choosing to be a member of an elected body that oversees our school district would share this intention. Your current inaction of not placing Mike Morris on leave brings this into question and has left so many people in our community disappointed, disheartened, and further hurt. 

Every day is an opportunity to emerge from the silence and take a stand for our kids. Every day is an opportunity to say, “I’ve been listening, and I’m ready to have a conversation about how we can do better.” Every day is an opportunity to hold yourselves and the superintendent to account, and to show the children of this district that you are really on their side. 

Anything short of these is gambling with our children’s lives – and that is not a gamble any of us should be willing to take. 

Until the Regional School Committee and Mike Morris himself take responsibility for allowing things to reach this point, no amount of legalese or trainings will assure the public that something similar – or worse – won’t occur again in the future. “

Jena Schwartz is a writing coach, parent and resident of Amherst.