Great Barrington — After The Berkshire Edge submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Great Barrington Police Department concerning its investigation over a copy of the book “Gender Queer” at W.E.B Du Bois Regional Middle School, the department has released documents and body cam footage involving the incident.
According to Berkshire Hills Regional School District Superintendent Peter Dillon, the department investigated the middle school for the book after receiving a complaint from a resident. The plainclothes officer who tried to find the book did not find it on the school’s premises. The investigation attracted national headlines in the news media, with Police Chief Paul Storti eventually apologizing for the department’s investigation.
The incident report, as seen here, lists Arantzau Zuzene Galdos-Shapiro. The school district lists Galdos-Shapiro as an eighth grade ELA teacher in the school district. [Editor’s note: after this article was published, Galdos-Shapiro’s name was taken off of the school district’s website.] While the incident report does not list who made the complaint, it lists that the department determined that no crime has been committed.
Video below provided by the Great Barrington Police Department. Audio begins 30 seconds into the video.
The officer, who has been identified from various sources as Joseph O’Brien, entered the school to search for the book blocked the bodycam lens with what appears to be a piece of clothing. At some points in the eight-minute video, however, people are seen. In the video, Officer O’Brien can be heard questioning a person at the school’s library. The person questioned in the video is not identified, but the officer questioned the person extensively. School Principal Miles Wheat is also questioned by O’Brien during his search for the book.
