AMHERST — In a continued effort to get their client back to her position advising Amherst Regional Middle School students as a guidance counselor, attorneys for Delinda Dykes are asking a Hampshire Superior Court judge to again uphold an arbitrator’s award.
Even as the district filed a cross-motion to vacate the July decision by the arbitrator that Dykes is entitled to return to work, after being fired in late 2023 for alleged anti-trans actions and other inappropriate comments related to gender or sexual orientation, her attorneys are asking for the award to be confirmed so she can get back into the building.
In the latest court filings Friday, attorneys James A.W. Shaw and Nico J. Marulli of Segal Roitman, LLP of Boston, wrote that “should the court confirm the award, Ms. Dykes asks the court to specifically clarify that reinstatement means a return to the workplace, and not simply being placed on a demeaning and ongoing paid administrative leave.”
In late August, prior to the first day of school, the arbitrator’s award was upheld by Judge James Manitsas, whose ruling denied the school district’s emergency motion.
They contend that the district placed Dykes on a paid leave, in defiance of both the court and the arbitrator decision, though they are not yet asking to find the district in contempt of court. The district has already paid Dykes $123,010.79 in back pay.
Attorneys for the district, though, are again asking that a judge not confirm the arbitration award, and instead have it vacated.
On Sept. 2, the attorneys for the district, Marc L. Terry, Hayley M. Cotter and Massiel L. Sanchez, all of Mirick, O’Connell, DeMallie & Lougee, LLP, filed the cross-motion, citing feedback from families, students and community members.
“The community response to the arbitration award ordering Ms. Dykes’ reinstatement underscores the fact that reinstatement is not in the best interests of the pupils in the district,” they wrote. “Numerous community members have demanded that Ms. Dykes have no contact with children if and when she is reinstated.”
Those demands were made at a School Committee meeting in July, as well as through a letter-writing campaign.
Following her separation from the district, Dykes exercised her legal right to challenge her firing through arbitration, a process afforded employees under Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 71, Section 42, when they believe they are unjustly dismissed.
That arbitrator, Eileen A. Cenci, ordered the district to “rescind the termination of Delinda Dykes, to immediately reinstate her to her position, and to restore all wages and benefits she would have received but for the wrongful termination, less interim earnings.” That decision came after three days of hearings.
“Ms. Dykes’ conduct in misgendering students and making inappropriate comments — even if, as the arbitrator found, such conduct did not take place in front of students — necessarily means that her reinstatement as a guidance counselor would be distressing to young students, particularly those that identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community,” the district’s attorneys wrote.
“Simply put, Ms. Dykes’ conduct jeopardized the welfare of her students and created an unsafe learning environment, and her reinstatement is clearly not in the best interests of the pupils in the district. Accordingly, the award ordering her reinstatement must be vacated.”