The Amherst schools have many great teachers and many wonderful programs. That said, what is happening to a mother of African heritage, an Amherst Regional High School graduate, is simply mind boggling.
It is one of the most extreme cases of abuse of assumed authority on the part of our superintendent that I have ever heard of. Aside from the ban on all nut products in all six school buildings, this frosts every layer of her cake of abuse. To ban a mother from her child’s school – placing stress on the child, and mother to a point of suffering ill health – is simply inexcusable.
A stay-away order is one of the most unconstitutional practices our society finds itself participating in. There has been inadequate due process. She has not been given the opportunity to appeal this outrageous decision, nor defend herself.
Along with being banned from the Pelham elementary school, the order is in effect for all Amherst school grounds. I can’t imagine any police officer of either the Amherst or Pelham police departments who could rest easy after placing a woman in handcuffs and hauling her off to a jail cell for attempting to enter the building where her first-grader is being taught, or sitting sick in the nurse’s office, or performing on stage with her class in the spring festival.
Can you? They have managed to put the focus on a woman who has simply been demanding that her child be treated with respect, that bullying be stopped and that the child be taught black history, especially during February, the month we are supposed to learn that African-American historical figures contributed more to America than we have been told.
Instead of administrators facing their implicit bias, which if you were raised in the United States you definitely possess, they turned the tables to make the mother look to be a danger. In actuality, if you look close enough, you will see that the only thing being protected here is “white” privilege running rampant.
Mary Lou Conca
Shutesbury