Berkshire County — The Berkshire Hills Regional School District has issued the results of an independent investigation of the incident involving eighth-grade ELA teacher Arantzazu Zuzene Galdos-Shapiro, and the Great Barrington Police Department.
The controversial incident, which has made national headlines, involves the Police Department’s investigation at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School over a copy of the book “Gender Queer” that Galdos-Shapiro allegedly had.
The committee approved an independent investigation at its meeting on January 11, and the investigation was conducted by Kevin Kinne from the Pittsfield law firm of Cohen Kinne Valicenti & Cook LLP.
According to Kinne’s report, more than a dozen school district employees were interviewed for the independent investigation “and all of them said that they have never seen [Galdos-Shapiro] engage in any inappropriate conduct with students or otherwise.”
Previously in the anonymous complaint made to the Police Department, the complainant accused Galdos-Shapiro of inappropriate conduct.
Kinne wrote that the copy of “Gender Queer” was purchased by Galdos-Shapiro and was brought into her classroom.
“Because the book was the ‘Most Challenged Book’ of the year [by the American Library Association] the school’s librarian Jennifer Guerin asked [Galdos-Shapiro] if the library could use her copy of the book for a ‘Banned Books Week’ display in the library,” Kinne wrote. “The teacher agreed and provided the book to Guerin from her collection so it could be displayed in the library with other books that had been banned.”
After seeing a copy of “Gender Queer” in the library display, a student asked Guerin if they could check out the book from the library.
Because the book was Galdos-Shapiro’s copy, Guerin told the students to ask Galdos-Shapiro if they could borrow the book from her.
“After exploring whether the book was appropriate for the student, [Galdos-Shapiro] allowed the student to sign out the book,” Kinne wrote. “The student returned the book in October 2023. No other student, before or after, has signed out the book from the teacher’s classroom.”
The report reveals that Great Barrington resident Adam Yorke, who worked as a night custodian in the school district, initiated the complaint to the Great Barrington Police Department, and made the allegations against Galdos-Shapiro.
“In the spring of 2023, Yorke falsely told another teacher at the school that the teacher ‘was teaching kids how to have gay sex’,” Kinne wrote. “There is no evidence, whatsoever, that the teacher was doing so. During the same time frame, Yorke engaged in conversations with teachers and staff members regarding pedophilia that made others uncomfortable and also stated to a teacher that the way to solve gun violence in school is to allow kids to bring guns to school. Yorke’s supervisors, Steven Soule and Scott Jenny, warned Yorke that any concerns he might have should be conveyed to them rather than to teachers and staff. Ignoring that warning, on October 24, 2023, Yorke confronted a Spanish teacher because he felt that her room needed to be cleaner for the custodians. He then berated the Spanish teacher, told her that the students needed to be better behaved, and commented to her that she was not respected because the students were not cleaning up after themselves. He further told the Spanish teacher that because her room was one of the messiest she had a problem with discipline. He then instructed her, with no qualifications to do so, about how to change the students’ behavior
After the Spanish teacher complained about Yorke to Assistant Principal Ellen Rizzo, Yorke was suspended for two days starting on October 23, 2023.
He was also given a letter of reprimand due to poor behavior and poor job performance.
Yorke subsequently contacted the state’s Commission Against Discrimination and filed a charge of discrimination against the district, alleging that the district discriminated against him based on his color [Yorke identifies as White] and an alleged disability which he identifies as reading and writing comprehension.
During his interview for the independent investigation, Yorke recanted his claims.
“Yorke also lied during his investigative interview by stating that he did not make the complaint to the police department, when, in fact, he did so,” Kinne wrote.
Kinne also noted that, as of February 15, 2024, Yorke is no longer employed by the district.
He also observed that since neither Yorke nor the Police Department “signed a complaint on a school district form documenting their criticism of the book, without such documentation the district should not have allowed the Police Department to proceed with its search of the classroom.”
“A mitigating circumstance here is that Yorke’s complaint to the Police Department included allegations of inappropriate physical contact with a student and other potential improprieties that could have impacted student safety,” Kinne wrote. “While those allegations may have justified an inquiry by the Police Department, it is clear that before Officer O’Brien began his search of the teacher’s classroom, he was no longer focusing his investigation on the allegations related to physical contact with students and other improprieties because they had no merit. Indeed, the body cam recording makes it clear that Officer O’Brien’s only focus during the classroom search was the book. Once it became clear that Officer O’Brien was only searching for the book, the search became inconsistent with [school district policy]. The appropriate process under that policy would then have required a signed complaint on a district form documenting any criticism of the book before proceeding further under the policy.”
A copy of the full report is available on the school district’s website at this link.
