Students, parents demand teacher’s reinstatement

Date: 7/5/2011

July 4, 2011

By Katelyn Gendron

Assistant Managing Editor

LONGMEADOW — Disgruntled students and parents have turned to social and conventional medias to demand the reinstatement of Anthony Shrout, Ph.D., a chemistry teacher at Longmeadow High School.

Despite their meetings with LHS Principal Lawrence Berte and Vice Principal Thomas Landers and the School Committee, some of Shrout’s past and present students and their parents claim the call for his reinstatement is lost on administrators. Shrout was terminated at the end of the academic year in June for undisclosed personnel infractions.

“Longmeadow High needs more teachers like Dr. Anthony Shrout, more teachers who are committed to their students, more teachers who put learning first, more teachers who have the ability to make better students, better people. The administration, however, suggests fewer teachers like this ... That is why many current students, alum, and parents have put in a lot of time and effort to not only have Dr. Anthony Shrout reinstated, but to set a precedent in the Longmeadow school system, that our opinions matter, our education matters, and our success matters. We won’t stop until we are heard and our questions are answered,” Natalie Berezin, one of Shrout’s former students and a graduate of LHS, said.

“After holding meetings with Mr. Berte, the principal of Longmeadow High School, which was a waste of time because he is not concerned about what we have to say, we also attended our select/ school board meeting at which we were told that, ‘We can’t do anything about this.’ We are now turning to the press to show [the] administration and everyone in Longmeadow how serious we are about this issue,” she added.

Berezin and others have formed a Facebook event page with more than 500 attendees so far for the promotion of the cause.

Tracie D’Agostino, whose daughter has been Shrout’s student of the past two years, called her meeting with Berte and Landers to discuss the matter on June 28 as ineffective.

“They told us that for personnel reasons they couldn’t say too much. They eluded to the fact that it [his termination] was because of some personnel issues, not anything to do with his teaching,” D’Agostino recalled. “They did acknowledge that they were receiving many e-mails and phone calls from concerned parents.”

When asked if she was surprised by Shrout’s dismissal, she replied, “I was shocked frankly because our feeling was that he was on of their top teachers.”

D’Agostino said Shrout was always eager to help her daughter after school. “He would never turn away a student if they asked for help,” she added.

Shrout said his student-first mentality caused his downfall with administrators.

“My first concern was always helping the kids out and because of this, I was sometimes late to [faculty] meetings,” he said, noting he even skipped one. “They, the administration, and I mean [Principal] Lawrence Berte, [Vice Principals] Thomas Landers and Paul Dunkerley said I didn’t value their advice. I know I’m stubborn. I don’t just do what I’m told to do when I’m told to do it.”

Shrout added, “I ask myself, ‘Is this meeting important or is helping this person important?’ I choose the person. You look back over it and it’s hard to figure out. They said I just don’t fit in, whatever that means.”

Shrout said he “towed the line” with administrators during his first two years at LHS, but during this past year he decided to “put students first more consistently.”

Lewis Okun, a former student of Shrout’s and 2010 graduate of LHS, agreed that Shrout put pupils first.

“You could really tell that he cared about what he was teaching and that really inspired us. He cared about the students and how well they did,” Okun said. “For teachers, in general, the most important goal is to inspire students and that’s more important than the administration and the pillars of the building. When they care about us, it furthers the learning experience and I think that’s what he did.

“He’s one of the teachers in which the school should take pride in. I think the people who are going to suffer are the future students because he’s such a spectacular teacher and he has the qualifications,” Okun continued.

Shrout earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2006.

“Ultimately, I would like to work this out somehow. I’d still love to teach there ... I haven’t set up a meeting [with the administration yet to talk about reinstatement]. I just want the parents and students to be heard and for everything to be kept above board. We still have time to work things out here,” Shrout said.

Calls to Berte, Landers and School Superintendent Marie Doyle for comment were not returned.