Johanna Lenski, a special education surrogate parent and advocate, says there's a 'deeply troubling' professional culture at Herberg that lets discriminatory actions and language slip by.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Around 60 community members gathered at Conte Community School on Monday night to discuss issues with prejudice in the district. 

The event was hosted by the Pittsfield Public Schools in partnership with the Berkshire NAACP and the Westside Legends. It began with breaking bread in the school's cafeteria, and caregivers then expressed fears about children's safety due to bullying, a lack of support for children who need it the most, and teachers using discriminatory and racist language. 

"One thing I've learned is that as we try to improve, things look really bad because we're being open about ways that we're trying to improve, and I think it's really important that we acknowledge that," interim Superintendent Latifah Phillips said, reflecting on her work in several other districts before coming to PPS last summer.  

"It is very easy to stay at the surface and try to look really good, and it may look like others are better than us, when they're really just doing a better job of just kind of maintaining the status quo and sweeping things under the carpet."

Brett Random, the executive director of Berkshire County Head Start, wrote on her personal Facebook page that her daughter reported her math teacher, "used extremely offensive language including both a racial slur (n-word) and a homophobic slur (f-word) and then reportedly tried to push other students to repeat those words later in the day when students were questioning her on her behavior."

The school department confirmed that an eighth-grade teacher at the middle school was placed on leave.  

The Berkshire Eagle, which first reported on the incident, identified the teacher as Rebecca Nitsche, and the teacher told the paper over the phone, "All I can tell you is it's not how it appears." Nitsche told the paper she repeated the words a student used while reporting the incident to another teacher because officials needed to know it happened. 

Johanna Lenski, speaking as a special education surrogate parent and parent advocate, on Monday said there is a "deeply troubling" professional culture at Herberg that has allowed discriminatory, racist, non-inclusive, and ableist treatment of students.

She said a Black transgender student was called a "piss poor, punk, puke of a kid," and repeatedly and intentionally misgendered by one of the school's teachers, and then wrongfully accused of physically assaulting that teacher, which resulted in a 10-day suspension. 

Another Herberg student with disabilities said the same staff member disclosed to an entire classroom that they lived in a group home and were in state Department of Children and Families' custody. When the teacher was asked to come to an individualized education program meeting for that student, Lenski said he "spent approximately 20 minutes attacking this child's character and portraying her as a problem, rather than a student in need of services and protection and support."