AMHERST — A Hampshire Superior Court judge is confirming an arbitrator’s decision that Delinda Dykes, the former guidance counselor at Amherst Regional Middle School fired in November 2023 for alleged anti-trans actions and other inappropriate comments related to gender or sexual orientation, can return to her position.
But even though the arbitrator’s award was upheld by Judge James Manitsas in a ruling denying the school district’s emergency motion issued late Friday, James A.W. Shaw of Segal Roitman, LLP, of Boston says more legal action will be necessary before his client is back in the school building.
“Unfortunately, the school district is refusing to fully honor the court’s order by placing Ms. Dykes on a paid leave of absence,” Shaw said, adding that the judge’s ruling was as emphatic as the award made by the arbitrator. “This squarely contradicts the court’s order, and further action in the courts will be necessary. “
Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman wrote in an email that an appeal of the arbitrator’s decision continues.
“Although the court denied the district’s request for an emergency injunctive stay of the arbitration order, the Amherst-Pelham Regional Public School District is moving forward with our appeal of the arbitrator’s decision,” Herman said.
Based on the ruling by Manitsas, Dykes’ reinstatement was set to start on Monday at the school where seventh and eighth graders from Amherst, Pelham, Leverett and Shutesbury are educated.
“The mere restating of bare allegations previously alleged by the school district, and found not to have been proven by the arbitrator, falls woefully short of establishing the arbitrator ‘exceeded her powers or rendered an award requiring a person to commit an act or engage in conduct prohibited by state or federal law,'” Manitsas wrote in the decision.
That ruling denies the emergency motion made by the district, at the request of the Regional School Committee, to vacate arbitrator Eileen A. Cenci’s decision.
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.
Cenci, after three days of hearings, 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 effectively overturned Dykes’ firing, which had been based on a Title IX investigation, and led to a termination letter from Principal Talib Sadiq in which he wrote that “you repeatedly misgendered students although having been corrected on numerous occasions” and “you made inappropriate comments related to gender and sexual orientation.”
“Given the vast gulf between the accusations against Ms. Dykes, and the actual evidence presented at arbitration, I am unable to conclude that she would be unable, with proper supervision, to work effectively in the best interests of all students in the Amherst-Pelham School District,” Cenci wrote.
Dykes has contended that this decision exonerated her, as the school district failed to prove that she either repeatedly misgendered students, despite being corrected, or that she made inappropriate comments related to gender or sexual orientation.
Following the decision, Dykes issued a statement, through her attorneys: “I deeply share everyone’s concern about the safety and well-being of all students, including those who identify as LGBTQIA+, and I will never waver in my commitment to help all students,” Dykes said.
The district has already paid Dykes $123,010.79 in back pay.
After the arbitrator’s decision was announced in July, a protest was organized by the LGBTQIA+ Caucus of Amherst in advance of a Regional School Committee meeting, which led to several parents, students, community members and others asking that Dykes not be allowed to be in any student-facing position. The caucus also organized a letter-writing campaign to the district with a similar request.
The caucus is planning to gather Wednesday at 8 a.m., the first day of school, outside the middle school on Chestnut Street to show the community it stands with the students. The intent is to have rainbow umbrellas and signs of solidarity and support displayed.
A similar initiative came in spring 2023 when The Graphic school newspaper printed accounts of anti-trans behavior by several school employees. At that action, high school students joined community members in providing a welcoming scene for middle schoolers.
Part of the arbitrator’s decision in favor of Dykes stemmed from the accuracy of witness testimony and whether Dykes’ comments were made in front of students.
In one instance, she allegedly criticized a male colleague for “confusing” students by allowing them to put nail polish on his fingernails, which prompted her to take out nail polish remover from her desk drawer. In another, she allegedly offered assistance to a staff member intervening in a dispute between male students over a girl where she supposedly said she was “going to be vulgar” and “keep it real.” In a third, she allegedly asked a colleague about how to address certain students, “What if this student wanted to be called potato sack, then we will call them potato sack?”
In addition, the arbitrator determined that due process had been violated and that the threshold of “conduct unbecoming a teacher” had not been met.
In the denial of the stay on the arbitrator’s award, Manitsas also ruled against the school district, in part because the courts have only limited judicial review, citing case law that “a reviewing court is bound by an arbitrator’s findings and legal conclusions.”