Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 9/26/2023
AMHERST — The results and details of a Title IX investigation that was initiated following allegations of staff harassment and improper conduct against student members of the LGBTQIA+ community at the middle school may not be made public according to the interim school superintendent.
Dr. Douglas Slaughter, now serving his second stint in the interim role said as much to members of the Union 26, Pelham and Regional Committee at their Sept. 19 meeting.
“It’s a fairly involved process,” Slaughter said, indicating the reports have been received from the investigator with a cover letter summary going to the complainants as well as the respondents in the case.
Following a 10-day period to allow for response and questions, the process enters a step called responsibility determination.
“That’s basically a determination of was Title IX violated or not,” Slaughter said an appeal process could follow depending on the finding.
A second non-Title IX report, a personnel report, is expected from the same investigator by the end of the month.
“The Title IX reports and the other investigative report that we’ll get will all be considered personnel records and as personnel records they’ll have restrictions on what can be made public,” Slaughter said. “We’re still working through what can and cannot be made public, it’s going to be pretty limited, so I think that’s going to be hard for folks in the general public.”
Slaughter said the district has to be mindful because the information involves personnel records, and he stressed the need to avoid exposure to any potential liability as a result of the release of that kind of information.
He added that he asked the investigator about the possibility of releasing an executive summary but was told it would involve personnel information only in shortened form so he offered his take on what the information should yield.
“Our intention is we take the things we’ve learned and will be learning about what happened, good, bad or otherwise, that we can improve on and get better and make those changes and alterations to our process, procedures and approach to things to be a better district,” he said.
In the aftermath of the initial allegations at the middle school, the Title IX investigation was initiated and three staff members were placed on administrative leave. Then Superintendent Michael Morris took a medical leave with Slaughter appointed in the temporary role. Acting Superintendent Doreen Cunningham was immediately placed on administrative leave by Slaughter. Morris returned to his post in July but then stepped down permanently last month in an agreement with the school committee. Following Morris’s departure, three Amherst and one Pelham School Committee members resigned from their posts.
Committee members offered questions about the report and the limitations including Amherst member Irv Rhodes who expressed frustration at the news.
“It’s sort of like having a board of directors being blinded in terms of what the operational part of the corporation is doing and that is not a good thing,” he said. “It feels like our hands are tied in such a way that we do not have command of the ship that we’re supposed to have command of.”
Slaughter told the committee that whatever information could be safely released publicly would be.
“Obviously, anything that we can reasonably make public that is not harmful to the district and not harmful to, or put us at a greater liability risk, is going to be, we’ll share that as best we can but I think it’s kind of a difficult circumstance because I think there’s a lot of expectation both not only on this board but also sort of publicly about what might see or not see,” he said. “It’s going to be pretty limited, so I just wanted to set people’s expectations now about that.”