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Date: 1/16/2024
AMHERST — Following allegations by a parent and student during the public comment section of a recent School Committee meeting, the chosen interim principal for Amherst Regional Middle School has declined the position.
Dr. Letha Gayle-Brissett, the ARMS Cultural Coordinator, informed the district she would not be assuming the leadership role, after the Jan. 9 meeting of the Amherst Regional School Committee took on a strained setting after a parent and child addressed the committee regarding the appointment of Gayle-Brissett to the interim position.
Shutesbury resident Kara Knott, the parent of a transgender child named Lee who was in the middle school last term, voiced objections to Gayle-Brissett’s selection.
“This is really hard, I don’t want to be here to say this, I placed great faith in the district to take seriously the concerns that we raised, to follow through on action items that were promised,” she said.
Knott said she chose to speak after learning about the change over the previous weekend.
“Dr. Gayle-Brissett was our main point person throughout our two years at ARMS for dealing with the bias related bullying and harassment that Lee experienced,” she said. “Not only was it not a helpful experience, her interventions, her lack of understanding and familiarity with gender identity issues and gender affirming practice further exacerbated the harm done to our child.”
Knott offered disappointment at the treatment her child received in the school, practices she said that placed the child in rooms with the students who were bullying him, uttered anti-trans slurs and outed him in front of other students.
Knott said the issues were brought to the attention of Gayle-Brissett, but that result was traumatizing.
“Everybody I know can grow and learn, but I think we need a leader right now for the school who’s well-versed in supporting LGBTQ youth, well-versed in gender identity issues and well-versed in gender affirming practice, and in our experience that was not Dr. Gayle-Brissett.”
Knott said Gayle-Brissett was “the wrong choice.”
“I don’t think that meant my child any harm,” Knott said. “I’m quite sure that she wanted the best for my child.”
Knott also called on the committee to examine the use of restorative practices in the school.
Middle School Teacher Mick O’Connor spoke before the committee in defense of Gayle-Brissett, citing what he described as her “open-mindedness and open-heartedness, and a commitment to the well-being of students of all identities.”
The criticism and allegations made by Knott towards Gayle Brissett come on after a recently released Title IX investigation that resulted in an upheaval within the district and the School Committee.
Gayle-Brissett then spoke before the committee, defending her work directing her first comments to Lee, who was present at the meeting and spoke briefly before the committee.
“My work or whatever I do was for your best interests, nothing else,” Gayle-Brissett said.
Gayle-Brissett called the allegations, “categorically false and professionally damaging,” and that the parents’ description of the restorative practices was not a true representation.
“I have dedicated myself to the welfare of students and staff without prejudice, I take particular care with LGBTQ students because I know kids at this stage are at the most vulnerable and impressionable in their identity construction,” Gayle-Brissett said.
Gayle-Brissett said the allegations weaponized an important social issue and that she would exhaust whatever means necessary to defend her reputation.
“It cannot be coincidence that these allegations are emerging at a time when I was offered a position of interim principal,” she said. “There have been some whispers that some members in the middle school community are intent on removing people of color, especially Black people from leadership positions, it is not unreasonable to believe that these false claims are part of this agenda.”
Gayle-Brissett concluded her comments telling the committee that she would defend her name and stand against the comments and allegations.
“I have worked hard, very hard as a Black, immigrant woman in this country to build my professional reputation and I will not allow anyone to destroy it,” she said. “We’ve had a very difficult year in the middle school I will say and I have been part of the solution not the problem.”
The school district confirmed to Reminder Publishing that Gayle-Brissett had declined the interim principal position at the Middle School.