In Great Barrington, a middle school teacher is suing the town and its officials following a controversial police search for a copy of an LGBTQ+ memoir, "Gender Queer: A Memoir," in her classroom. Arantzazu Zuzene Galdós-Shapiro, an English Language Arts teacher at Du Bois Regional Middle School, filed a federal lawsuit claiming her civil rights were violated during the incident.
The link to the federal case came to be after a “disgruntled” janitor falsely accused Galdós-Shapiro of distributing pornographic materials and made homophobic and racist remarks toward staff. This led to a plainclothes officer searching her classroom without finding the book in question. According to Boston.com, the janitor who had been previously disciplined for inappropriate comments, had claimed Galdós-Shapiro was allowing students to sit on her lap and advised them to hide LGBTQ+ materials from their parents.
The police action triggered national media coverage as the teacher was well-liked by students, colleagues, and had been appointed by the district superintendent, Peter Dillon, to a principal search committee. As reported by The Boston Globe, Galdós-Shapiro, who advises the school's Gender and Sexuality Alliance, kept "Gender Queer" available in a separate library for students with permission, which is not a part of the school district’s curriculum.
After the search, Galdós-Shapiro was left devastated and anxious, claiming harm to her reputation and well-being. She alleges that her First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights were infringed upon. The complaint cites that an unwarranted criminal investigation and interrogation led to the publishing of "baseless, false, and defamatory allegations against Ms. Galdós-Shapiro," including implications of pedophilia, as stated in the lawsuit obtained by Boston.com.
In response to the fallout, Berkshire Hills Regional School District Superintendent Peter Dillon and Police Chief Paul Storti issued apologies. Dillon is currently out of office until May 28, recuperating from surgery. Galdós-Shapiro has yet to return to teaching due to the turmoil still at her doorstep. The case, which also names Officer Joseph O’Brien and the town of Great Barrington as defendants, aims to address not just the events of the search but the impact it has had on Galdós-Shapiro's life and career.
