AMHERST — A parent’s complaint over being banished from her daughter’s school has sparked a battle between the superintendent and the school committee chairman over an alleged conflict of interest.
In a May 4 letter, an attorney representing Superintendent Maria Geryk told Trevor Baptiste, chairman of the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee, that his relationship with complainant Aisha Hiza may make him unfit to rule on the merits of her complaint.
Michael Long — who represents Geryk in her capacity as a member of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents — said he is considering filing a complaint with the State Ethics Commission on the matter.
Baptiste, for his part, said he does not intend to respond to Long’s letter.
Hiza, a Pelham Elementary School parent, filed the complaint, alleging a stay-away order banning her from all school property in the district is unfounded and racist.
The daughters of Baptiste and Hiza, both first-graders at the school, are friends.
Long’s letter also constitutes a public records request, citing state law in its demand for any and all written communications between Baptiste and any other individual “relating to complaints, charges or allegations of bullying against her child, or relating anyway to interaction with any employee of the Pelham Public Schools, or with regard to Ms. Geryk’s employment with the Amherst Pelham Regional School district.”
Baptiste said last week he would like to put the letter behind him.
“I’m not even thinking about that letter,” he said, adding that there’s been no further correspondence with Long since his letter. “If any action needed to be taken, it would be by my lawyer.”
Hiza said the friendship between her daughter and Baptiste’s daughter — the only two black students in their first-grade class — is the reason Geryk thinks he has a conflict.
“They think he has a bias,” said Hiza. “The most we talk is, ‘Oh, can you pick up the girls.’ And that’s more between me and Whitney (Battle-Baptiste). It’s messed up — it’s really, really messed up.”
Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Trevor Baptiste’s wife, spoke during the public comment session at a meeting of the Pelham School Committee on May 4. She spoke out against racism in Pelham, asserting she was not taking a side on any specific issue.
“When people that look like me speak up for their children, we’re seen as aggressive,” said Battle-Baptiste. “This is not just about one person. This is about several children of color feeling isolated, marginalized, bullied — my child does not like to wear her hair curly anymore because of the bullying that happens within the building.”
The Pelham School Committee discussed Hiza’s complaint in executive session on May 5. The Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee also deliberated on the issue in executive session Tuesday.
Hiza said Wednesday she knows nothing about what happened at either meeting. Baptiste said Wednesday the Pelham School Committee plans to provide information to Hiza regarding her complaint “within the next couple of days.”
Hiza, who grew up in Amherst and now lives in Chicopee, said the stay-away order was issued in the midst of a long-standing, race-tinged bullying issue between her daughter and another student. Hiza said that while she was often vocal in her disagreement with the school’s handling of the bullying, she was never threatening.
In the letter from Long, he wrote the order was issued after “a series of needlessly belligerent and contentious confrontations.” In the order, Geryk states the action is based on Hiza’s “actions to date” and information received by the district that the administration deems credible.
Hiza said the information deemed credible came from her ex-husband, who is currently fighting her in court for sole custody of their daughter.
Hiza said she’s been getting threatening hate mail in the past week because of the issue. She said attacks on Baptiste are beside the point.
“It’s a mess,” said Hiza. “Now they’ve turned it all around into we’re the bad guys instead of figuring out what the problems are.”
