An appeal by the Amherst-Pelham Regional Public Schools in western Massachusetts to stop a former employee from being reinstated to her job as a guidance counselor has been denied.
That’s according to a Hampshire Superior Court memorandum of decision released Friday.
Guidance counselor Delinda Dykes was let go from her job in Amherst schools in December 2023 for allegedly misgendering students at the middle school.
She sought arbitration and after a hearing last month, the school district was told it was required to reinstate Dykes in her position.
The arbitrator found the district failed to prove Dykes had either repeatedly misgendered students despite being corrected, or that she made inappropriate comments related to gender or sexual orientation.
The district filed an appeal at the end of last month.
In the court memo written August 22, 2025, Justice of the Superior Court James Manitsas wrote the district's motion must be denied because the “mere restating of bare allegations previously alleged by the school district and found not to have been proven by the arbitrator falls woefully short of establishing” what the district said of the the arbitrator — that she “exceeded her powers….”
Today is the first day of school in the 2025-26 school year.
A district spokesperson would not confirm or deny that Dykes was working in the schools. He said a press release was forthcoming.
An attorney for the district could not be reached in time for publication.
This is a developing story.
