Great Barrington — The fallout over the Police Department’s investigation at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School over a copy of the book “Gender Queer” continues. The incident has made national headlines since The Berkshire Edge first reported on it, with Police Chief Paul Storti subsequently apologizing for the department’s role in the investigation.
The investigation, which was captured on bodycam, has led eighth-grade ELA teacher Arantzau Zuzene Galdos-Shapiro, who was investigated by the department over a copy of the book, to take a leave of absence.
The controversy continued at the Selectboard meeting on Monday, January 8, one month after the incident took place, as Chair Stephen Bannon announced at the beginning of the meeting that the town would be investigating the Police Department over the incident. Bannon is also the chair of the Berkshire Hills Regional School District, of which the W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School is a part. “We would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge this incident tonight as a board and our first public meeting since the incident took place,” Bannon said at the beginning of the January 8 Selectboard meeting. “We fully recognize the impact this has had on our school community and the community as a whole, and it will take both time and committed action for us to fully recover. At this time, Town Manager [Mark Pruhenski] is reviewing the town’s internal policies and procedures with the police chief and with the guidance of counsel. The Police Department is also conducting its own internal debriefing process to determine how any similar future situation could and would be handled differently.”
Bannon said that a public listening session would be scheduled once the town concludes its investigation, but he did not give a date for the session. “We hope this will be an opportunity to review our policies, revise them as necessary, and learn from the situation,” Bannon said. “We also hope that, in time, we can rebuild the town’s long-standing positive working relationship with the school district, its staff, its faculty, and its students.”
In response, Selectboard member Ben Elliott said that there are still a lot of questions that remain about the investigation, including what led up to the Police Department investigating the school, and what happened after the incident. “No matter what comes to light during this process, one thing is clear: There is a lot of work to repair the trust that needs to be broken,” Elliott said. “I think that is going to fall onto the shoulders of this board and the town government, as well as the Police Department. It seems clear that someone has used our police force to enact a political agenda. In the process, this has made our gay and trans communit[ies] feel targeted as if their personal stories were obscene and unwelcome in a public space. That’s unacceptable. I can give a statement of support tonight, but I don’t think words really do enough. I think it’s all about actions moving forward.”
“I would love for us to do the right thing, listen appropriately, and take appropriate action,” Selectboard member Garfield Reed added. “I would love to see this not tear the town apart and take forever to repair. I hope we don’t have a small-town attitude, which would make things more entangled.”
Typically, Bannon only allows residents from Great Barrington to speak during the public comment portion of the Selectboard meeting; however, towards the end of the January 8 meeting, Bannon allowed residents from other towns who are involved with the school district to speak.
Ananda Timpane, who is the executive director of the Railroad Street Youth Project, said that, while she welcomes the town’s investigation and review of the incident, the town has a lot of work to do. “There are at least three critical things that should be included in [the town’s] actions as you move forward,” Timpane said. “Transparency during the review needs to be undertaken, and the process [of the review] should be transparent and [in] full view of the public. To that end, the town should respond to the ACLU and GLAD’s letter that asks the town to take corrective action, instruct staff, and importantly inform the public that law enforcement responses to concerns about books in schools and other educational programs are not appropriate and should not and will not happen again.” Timpane was referring to a late December letter co-signed by the American Civil Liberties Union and GLAD Legal Advocates and Defenders and sent to Berkshire County District Attorney Timothy Shugrue and Police Chief Paul Storti condemning the investigation.
“To my knowledge, none of this has happened yet, at least the public informing aspect [has not happened],” Timpane said. “Without this, there is a chilling effect on the First Amendment in our community and our schools. What happens [as a result of the investigation] needs to happen in a transparent way regarding the implementation and, where necessary, the creation of policies and procedures to prevent complaints to the police like the one that occurred from being used to harass people in our community, particularly as a tool of discrimination.”
Monterey resident Dan Neilson, who is also a parent of a student at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School, said that he is concerned with School Superintendent Peter Dillon’s actions as the Police Department’s investigation took place. When he spoke, Neilson referred to comments Dillon made at a private meeting between school district officials and parents that was held on January 3. “One thing we’ve heard twice now from district leadership … is that the superintendent felt that he was obliged to allow Chief Storti to continue with an investigation in the school because the district values its relationship with the Great Barrington Police Department,” Neilson said. “[Dillon] seemed to be saying that he needed to let Chief Storti continue with the investigation so that the district could continue to rely on the police so that they would be able to come [into the school district in case of an emergency]. He implied that the police may not come [for emergencies] if he didn’t allow them to come in [for the ‘Gender Queer’ book investigation]. My question to the Selectboard, which I think the parent community would like to hear your answer on, is if the board accepts this argument from Superintendent Dillon that the school district needed to allow the police [to investigate] so the school district could count on the police to respond to an emergency?”
Neither Bannon nor any of the members of the Selectboard answered Neilson’s question.
School committee meeting in executive session on Jan. 11
On Thursday, January 11, the Berkshire Hills Regional School Committee will hold its regular meeting to discuss the continuing controversy over the police investigation. The meeting, which will be held at the middle school, will start at 5 p.m. with an executive session. The meeting agenda cites “threatened litigation – book search” as the reason for the executive session. The public session for the meeting is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. The meeting is listed as to be held both in-person and virtually over Zoom.
While it is not known, specifically, what specific “threatened litigation” the meeting agenda refers to, on Friday, January 5, both Bannon and Dillon received a letter from attorney Howard Cooper of Todd & Weld of Boston on behalf of Galdos-Shapiro.
Dillon sent a copy of the letter after a request was made for it by The Berkshire Edge; however, the copy of the letter that The Berkshire Edge received is heavily redacted and scratches out several names.
In the letter, Cooper wrote that the firm represents Galdos-Shapiro and that he requested the Selectboard and the school district “… immediately undertake an independent investigation into the events at issue, including, without limitation, determining how [and] by whom a criminal complaint was initiated against our client and how each step of the decision-making which took place thereafter was made.”
The Police Department’s incident report lists Galdos-Shapiro’s name but does not list the name of the complainant.
(Since The Berkshire Edge first reported on the Police Department’s “Gender Queer” investigation back in December, one of Galdos-Shapiro’s relatives, along with a school administrator have all requested that The Berkshire Edge keep Galdos-Shapiro’s name out of its reporting. Galdos-Shapiro has been named in the Police Department’s report and it is The Berkshire Edge’s policy not to censor public records as a matter of preserving transparency and the public’s right to know information about its municipal government.)
Meanwhile, The Berkshire Edge has obtained an ebook version of “Gender Queer.” The graphic novel, which was published in 2019, does depict nudity and sexual situations. In an interview with The Washington Post back in September 2023, “Gender Queer” author Maia Kobabe said, “I don’t recommend this book for kids!”
