Racism By Any Other Name

ARHS closed January 27 due to "unforeseen circumstances"

Are the Amherst Regional Public Schools guilty of a coverup in the Facebook Confessions threat incident that closed the High School on January 27?

At the Community Meeting held later that night to (sort of) explain the "unforeseen circumstances" that suddenly shut down the school, why did school officials not mention the racial component and bullying that led to the fear fueled "threat" being posted on Facebook out of self defense?

And exactly how did the mother (Jamie Sadiq) who blew the whistle on the racial backstory (but not the bullying) leading up to the Facebook incident know the white student involved?  Police and School officials had only learned his name at 3:30 AM that very morning and were refusing to divulge it to the media.  

And why didn't the schools contact the Amherst Police Department after a white father first complained to Dean of Students Mary Custard about the bullying his son was receiving, which later escalated to (criminal) assault by one of the students, who is black?

Why was the white youth suspended for 12 days and his father who works for the schools suspended without pay for 3 days, while the three black youths who bullied him -- including the one who laid hands on him -- received no suspensions?

As part of "Warrior Week" at ARHS, the schools published and promoted two compelling incidents of racial bigotry aimed at a new teacher of color that occurred last October.  But why are we only now hearing this sad story?

Those back-to-back incidents clearly crossed the line into criminal activity via Civil Rights infractions.  Again, why was the Amherst Police Department not immediately notified last October?

Anyone see a pattern here?

Anyone remember 12 years ago when Superintendent Gus Sayer failed to file a 51A report when a mother complained her 15-year-old son was propositioned by the new Principal (Steven Myers) who turned out to have a pedophile background?

And yes that's the same Gus Sayer who retired from Amherst within a year of that ignoble incident, but then came out of retirement to become Superintendent of South Hadley High School where he failed to protect Phoebe Prince from bullying -- and dying.  

In response to that tragic incident the state passed an anti-bullying law requiring all schools to report incidents exactly like the ones that have occurred at ARHS since October.

Amherst needs to start prioritizing the health and welfare of all students (whatever race, creed or color) over their public image.

Amherst Regional High School kids stomp out racism/sexism/homophobia last year.  Well, almost

"A Precipitating Event"

A black mother addresses racial issues with all-white panel of Amherst town officials

If you're Irish you can crack jokes about alcohol; if you're a young supposedly hip black youth you can use the N-word among other young supposedly hip black youth.  Sort of.

But over the past few years -- because of the pervasiveness of hip hop music -- a kind of cultural homogenization has occurred where white youth (or in Madonna's case, older white women) have adopted a variation of the N-word (5 letters rather than 6, ending in "a" rather than "er") as a term of endearment.

However, when you transmit either N-word over social media where anybody can see it, you're asking for trouble.  BIG trouble.

This sad story starts ironically enough over Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, after a white youth (I'm going to call him "Justin" but that is not his name) posted a note of congratulations to his close friend, who is black, using the shorter (supposedly hip) version of the N-word.

Other black youth took offense and aggressively let Justin know it.

The original "threat" on the Facebook confessions page was actually submitted that weekend (January 18) but did not see the light of bandwidth until Saturday, January 25 a week later (the confessions page is moderated and a bevy of saved up "confessions" are published simultaneously) and was quickly spotted by School Superintendent Maria Geryk Sunday evening, January 26.

Obviously Justin was trying to send up a warning flare about being bullied.  And the events of the previous week, days after he first tried to post his "confession," demonstrate why:

On Tuesday, January 21 Justin had an altercation with a black youth upset about his Facebook congratulatory post to his friend (who is black).  It was heated enough for Justin's father, who works in the schools, to stop in the next day (Wednesday January 22) and consult with Dean of Students, Mary Custard.

She of course had problems with either version of the N-word.  The father agreed to tell Justin to stop using it (and had in fact done so in the past), even as a term of endearment.  At the meeting Ms. Custard informed the father she had been in contact with the parents of the black youth (his father also works for the schools) involved in the Tuesday confrontation.

Now Justin's father  became "dismayed" that he was not initially consulted for this official attempt at fact finding.  Even though they live in a surrounding city, the schools would certainly have his contact information and he does, after all, work in the building.

And he let Ms. Custard know, "The situation needs to be quelled before it gets out of hand."  On the morning of Friday, January 24th it did get out of hand, as one of the black youths escalated from verbal abuse to getting physical with Justin. 

The father again paid a call on Ms. Custard, but then tried to go over her head to Principal Mark Jackson, who was not in his office.  So he consulted with Vice Principal Michael Thompson, who promised to set up a meeting on Monday between the warring students, Ms. Custard and Principal Jackson.

In the meantime Vice Principal Thompson told Justin to go to lunch and if any problems with the other combative kids should arise, to seek out the nearest adult to act as referee/cop.

After lunch the problem happened yet again.  Justin, angry and hurt, called his father to tell him of the altercation and reported he was signing himself out of school.  The meeting scheduled for Monday never happened because the school suddenly closed due to Justin's Facebook "threat" discovered on Sunday night.

Through the snooping skills of Information Technology guru Kris Pacunas town officials and police discovered Justin was the perpetrator of the Facebook "threat" somewhere between 3:00 and 3:30 early Monday morning.

A few hours later Justin's father received a call from Amherst Police to come in for an interview, where he described how well his guns were stored.  As an ex-marine the father is well versed on the proper handling and respect shown for firearms, starting-and-ending with security.

Around 9:00 a.m. Monday morning local city police showed up and the father willingly turned over all the guns, even though they were legally owned and legally stored.  Police have determined Justin never actually carried a firearm into the schools.

The Mass State PD  bomb squad screamed through Amherst town center around 11:30 a.m. Monday morning heading to the High School to do a complete sweep for guns and bombs, although bombs were never mentioned in the Facebook "threat."

At the "community meeting" on Monday night (Justin and his family did not attend) school officials focused on the Facebook post as the "precipitating event".  A concerned audience member begged to differ, although she portrayed Justin as pretty much a KKK member.

School officials first informed parents and guardians only an hour or so before school normally starts  Monday morning (January 27) that ARHS was closed due to "unforeseen circumstances."

Perhaps if administrators opened their eyes a week earlier, those circumstances would be far from unforeseen.  After all, the first step is to recognize you have a problem.

The Republican reports (front page no less)

Ace Amherst Schools, noncompliant?

According to the state Department Of Education: Traditional study halls are not considered "directed" or "independent" study solely because of the presence of a teacher in the room.

Last year Northampton High School had no mandated study halls while Amherst Regional High School had two. Even the diffident Regional School Committee voted down Principal Jackson's suggestion to up it to three study halls.

Meanwhile Northampton's overhead per student that year was only $11,699, below the $13,062 state average; Amherst's platinum plated Regional schools spent a whopping $16,909 per student--well above state average.

So even if principal Mark Jackson--Amherst's 2nd highest paid town employee--is correct that "directed study hall counts towards the state mandated time in learning," that still means the venerable Amherst schools barely beat (by only 3%) bare minimum state standards (990 hours) while spending almost 30% more.

For Champagne prices we should be able to avoid Piels beer performance.

Principal Mark Jackson is defending the warehousing of kids as long as a qualified teacher (the more qualified, the higher the salary) is sitting up front acting as baby sitter, rather than simply a responsible warm body.

If no actually teaching is taking place, what difference does it make? It would be lot cheaper to use para professionals. Or maybe we could get some volunteer grad students from the Umass School of Education.


And no, as of this evening Mr. Jackson has not provided a state legal source confirming that a certified teacher makes all the difference with study halls.

Gold plated Amherst School employees?

If you have ever wondered why Amherst public school student cost per child is sooooo much higher than our Sister Republic of Northampton, all you need do is look at the salary comparison School Committee member Steve Rivkin (a data wonk) distributed last night at the Regional School Committee meeting. Yikes!

The Amherst elementary schools spent $15,846 per pupil and the Amherst Regional High School spent $16,909 per pupil in fiscal 2009. Northampton public schools spent $11,699--well below the state average of $13,062 (which Charter Schools also come in at).

Of course Amherst Regional High School Principal Mark Jackson pulls down $131,236 and has two assistants (this does not include the extra bonus $19,419 he was awarded to also oversee the Middle School for seven months), while Hamp's Principal is under $100-K with only one assistant.

And what's this $96,000 payment to Umass for "partnership to support teaching and learning"? Last I looked Umass sends about 60 kids from their tax-exempt housing (including two from Chancellor Holub's fancy house high on a hill) at an annual cost to Amherst taxpayers of almost $1 million, yet we also pay them $96,000?

Some partnership!

Figures don't lie! (click the hotlink)

Townwide salaries
>Dare To Compare!

Say it isn't so

So this Amherst Bully web article falls into the "You gotta be kidding me category!" 105 faculty and staff of Amherst Regional High School sign a petition supporting their boss Mark Jackson, after he made an ass of himself bullying School Committee member Catherine Sanderson at the 3/9 SC meeting.

Goes to show what lousy institutional memory they have. After all, 8 years ago that many staff signed a petition penned by ARHS journalism teacher Bruce Penniman supporting pedophile principal Steven Myers, who almost days later disappeared in the middle of the night.

And in 1999 a 17-year-old Puerto Rican girl garnered 158 signatures in one day at the High School decrying the production of 'West Side Story' as the Senior class play; she managed to convince the spineless School Committee to cancel the production--the first time in history any entity has ever banned 'West Side Story.'



ARHS The Graphic 1/25/02 Click to enlarge/read

School bullying--even in Amherst

UPDATE: 3:40 PM Okay, so here's the prequel leading up to Principal Mark Jackson's insubordinate rant.

Notice how Maria Geryk whispers to Farshid Hajir the School Committee Chair about Mark wanting to speak. And of course, Hajir was too demure to shut down the overly aggressive Jackson when he crossed the line and attacked fellow School Committee person Catherine Sanderson. And now Maria Geryk is Mark Jackson's boss for the next 16 months. Obviously he will have it pretty good.

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So forget that Principal Mark Jackson, the second highest paid "public servant" in the People's Republic @ $131,236, is better than twice Catherine Sanderson's size, and forget for a moment that as a School Committee member she is in charge of hiring the Superintendent who can then fire Jackson, this was just plain inappropriate.

And I'm trying to figure out how he's so sure what was in those "evaluations" of the Superintendent when Alberto Rodriguez was, two days ago, Jackson's direct boss.

The 15 or 20 anonymous evaluations collected from administrative staff (including Jackson's) should have gone directly to Chair Farshid Hajir and then to the entire Amherst Regional School Committee--but nobody else.