Letter: School Committee Fails To Protect Children
Protestor at the rally in support of LGBTQ youth at the Amherst Regional Middle School on July 28, 2023. Photo: Doug Anderson
The following letter was sent to the Regional School Committee on August 14,2023
I am writing to express my dismay regarding your continuous failures to protect the children of our school district. One such way to do so would have been by calling an emergency meeting to hold a vote about putting Michael Morris on administrative leave. I am well aware that the next scheduled meeting is now just over a week away, and that you have expressed openly that no meetings would occur before that time. How anyone could read Maxine Oland’s letter and not care enough to be moved to action is beyond me.
Even more disappointing than your refusal to call an emergency meeting that many of your constituents have been requesting for months, have been the public statements expressing a total lack of regard for the needs and requests of the public who elected you. When your contempt for the people you represent outweighs your responsibility to the position to which you were elected, perhaps it is time to question your motives for holding such a position.
If you were unmoved by the rally supporting LGBTQIA+ children who were harmed by Michael Morris’s inactions (and subsequent public lie about not having received reports on the matter), perhaps it was because you didn’t witness the pain and bravery of these young children firsthand. I’m attaching a picture in case you missed it in the Globe and other news outlets.
We’ll remember in November.
M.J. Schwartz
M.J. Schwartz is an Amherst resident, parent, and a member of the LGBTQIA+ community with experience as a crisis counselor for LGBTQIA+ youths.