Protect Trans & Queer Kids: A Roundup of Writing about the 2023 Crisis at ARMS

Amherst Indy March 23, 2026 0
Protect Trans & Queer Kids: A Roundup of Writing about the 2023 Crisis at ARMS

The rainbow crosswalk at Amherst Regional Middle School. Photo: Art Keene

March 23, 2026: The following archive was started by a local parent beginning in July, 2023 to track the LGBTQIA+ discrimination crisis at Amherst Regional Middle School, where charges of harassment of LGBTQIA+ students by both students and staff were confirmed by subsequent Title IX and non-Title IX investigations (see also here) that faulted the district for failing to protect students from harm and for protecting perpetrators of that harm. The Indy will continue to maintain the archive, as over the past two and a half years, the school district attempted to confront the investigation’s findings. In the intervening period, there were changes in staff and administration, several of the impacted students withdrew from the district, and new policies were adopted. In the fall of 2025, a court mediator required the schools to reinstate Delinda Dykes, one of the school counselors who had been dismissed for discriminating against LGBTQIA+ students and many in the community testified that the trauma of 2023 was still very much present, not just in their memories but in the ongoing experiences of their students. Amherst Regional Public Schools continue to struggle with issues of bullying and student safety to this day. In the coming weeks, the Indy will attempt to fill out the archive from the end of November 2023 to the present, and we invite our readers to send us links that help complete the story.

Please send your additions to amherstindy@gmail.com.

Key resources:

  1. The Graphic‘s story from May 9, 2023: ‘It’s life or death’: failure to protect trans kids at ARMS a systemic problem
  2. The following redacted investigation reports were released to the public on November 17, 2023:

3. This link provides recordings, minutes, and other documentation of School Committee meetings: https://go.boarddocs.com/ma/arps/Board.nsf/Public

Other coverage, in roughly chronological order, starting in April 2023 follows. Scroll DOWN to see the most recent pieces I’ve listed:

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