MA: Staffers Placed on Leave After Student Paper Exposes Transphobia

A deeply reported student article about transphobic staff at Amherst Regional Middle School has resulted in three staff placed on leave as the community reckons with what the young journalists uncovered.

by Evan Urquhart

A schocking story about rampant bullying of trans middle-schoolers in Amherst, Massachusetts which pointed a finger at unsupportive guidance counselors at Amherst Regional Middle School has shown just how much impact good reporting can have as three staff members have been placed on leave pending an investigation into the allegations. The story, which appeared in the student newspaper for Amherst Regional High School, provided in-depth reporting on incidents of transphobic bullying, multiple written complaints from parents of trans students, and an account by a fellow staff member who claimed that Christian staff members prayed on school grouds to “bind that LGBTQ gay demon that wants to confuse our children.”

screenshot from the Graphic

The Graphic’s reporters uncovered incidents of youth being called transphobic andhomophobic slurs, surrounded, yelled at, told to kill themselves. The bullying was so severe one student was withdrawn from school and homeschooled by their parents. They also wrote that three guidance counselors in the school, two of whom were father and daughter, repeatedly misgendered trans students while downplaying the severity of bullying from other students. Although the Graphic found evidence of numerous written complaints about the bullying and about the guidance counselors lack of response, no action had been taken with school officials suggesting the complaints were unsubstantiated.

This all seems to be changing now, after reporting by the Graphic was picked up on social media as well as in at least one local outlet, MassLive, which reported on the response by the local transgender community and on the three staffers being placed on paid leave as the school investigates the allegations further.