Union Questions Spate of Child Abuse Investigations Launched by District Against School Staff
Amherst Regional Middle School and Amherst Public Schools District Offices. Photo: Amherst Public Schools
Source: Amherst Pelham Education Association
The Amherst-Pelham Education Association has requested clarity from the Amherst-Pelham School District around the sudden increase in the filing of 51A reports on alleged child abuse to the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) against school staff. The state has already investigated and cleared individuals from three of these filings, and found them to be unsubstantiated. Others are pending. The unprecedented filing of six 51As charging child abuse or neglect–in only 36 days–has raised the question of the district’s possible misapplication of the most serious of proceedings against educators.
“The district appears to be weaponizing the 51A, making it the go-to action instead of giving educators due process,” said APEA Executive Board member Alexander Lopez.
The APEA demands to know:
- What specific actions result in the district filing a 51A against a staff person? How often do those actions fall outside the bounds of abuse and neglect?
- If there is a concern, what intermediary steps does the district take to gain clarity about the concern? Why has the district not made attempts to ask educators their side of the story before going to the highest level, DCF?
- Why have there been inconsistencies in how staff members are treated after a 51A filing? Some staff have been put on administrative leave, but others are allowed to continue in the schools.
- How has the State responded to this apparent improper usage of the 51A filing process?
Furthermore, the APEA has asked the district to provide data about how many 51A filings happened the previous school year. The district has not yet provided this information.
At the Regional School Committee meeting on December 12, 2023 , the APEA joined several members of the public in urging the School Committee to reinstate one teacher who lost her job amid a 51A filing (see also here). According to testimony at that meeting, Amherst Regional Middle School teacher Erin Lawler was fired by the district prior to the conclusion of a 51-A investigation into a complaint filed by a parent, for which she was exonerated by the DCF of all charges. At that meeting, Interim Superintendent Doug Slaughter refused to answer questions about Lawler’s dismissal, saying that he cannot discuss personnel matters, but adding that Lawler was let go within her first 90 days of employment and that” it is legal to fire people within the first 90 days for any reason or for no cause at all.” Slaughter subsequently rebuked the committee at the Regional School Committee meeting of January 9, for continuing to ask about Lawler’s dismissal, reminding them that personnel matters are the exclusive purview of the superintendent.
The APEA demands greater leadership, transparency, clarity, consistency and fairness from the district when concerns arise.
For more information, contact: executiveboard@amherstpelhamed.org
not being mentally, let alone physically, abused within or by the educational system is definitely a moral right.
My Grade 2 teacher was the first and most formidably abusive authority figure with whom I was terrifyingly trapped. I cannot recall her abuse in its entirety, but I’ll nevertheless always remember how she had the immoral audacity — and especially the unethical confidence in avoiding any professional repercussions — to blatantly readily aim and fire her knee towards my groin, as I was backed up against the school hall wall.
Luckily, she missed her mark, instead hitting the top of my left leg. Though there were other terrible teachers, for me she was uniquely traumatizing, especially when she wore her dark sunglasses when dealing with me.
But rather than tell anyone about my ordeal with her and consciously feel victimized, I instead felt some misplaced shame: I was a ‘difficult’ boy, therefore she likely perceived me as somehow ‘deserving it’. I was much too young to perceive how a regular-school environment can become the traumatizer of susceptible children like me; the trusted educator indeed the abuser.
I’m sorry for anyone like Frank who has suffered actual abuse at the hands of any teacher. This is NOT what has happened in the ARPS district. No filing was about physical abuse. The staff involved were not told about the filing ahead of time. Usually there is a conversation or if the situation turns out to be more serious, an investigation done in-house by the district. Actions are taken after that, or if it is deemed a misunderstanding, appropriate repair is made. This is about the District STARTING at the highest level of action and alarm, and long-time veterans of the district have not seen anything like it, ever. One teacher even lost her job over this although the State cleared her.
The Mitnick reports document that last year, district administrators retaliated against faculty and staff who spoke up to protect LGBTQIA+ students who were being bullied and that an atmosphere of fear and intimidation prevailed at the Middle School.
https://go.boarddocs.com/ma/arps/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=C7SKS452D9F7
Recently, a Middle School science teacher was fired without cause prior to the conclusion of a 51a investigation of her, in which she was subsequently fully exonerated. It was reported that the 51a against her was filed in retaliation for a 51a that she herself had filed as a mandated reporter.
https://www.amherstindy.org/2023/12/15/letters-six-letters-and-public-comments-in-support-of-fired-arms-science-teacher-erin-lawler/
That firing, and the retaliations documented in the Mitnick reports, will likely have a chilling effect on staff who might consider speaking up to defend children or colleagues from harm.
Now, we hear that the district his filed six 51as against employees in the last 36 days. What the heck is going on? If the district is indeed using 51as as another means of intimidating ARPS employees, this needs to be exposed and stopped. We have indications that considerable bullying of LGBTQIA+ kids continues within.ARPS as does the culture of fear and intimidation among the staff. If that’s the case, ARPS buildings are not a safe places for anyone working or learning within them.
The interim superintendent asserts that he can’t talk about these things because they touch on personnel matters and are solely within his purview. We saw the harmful impacts of district leadership hiding behind such claims all of last year and sadly, at this point, the district has little credibly and has failed to re-establish the trust of the community that it lost last year. The School Committee and the public need to demand more daylight on the issue of intimidation and retaliation and insist on necessary protections for students and staff alike.