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Story, D-Amherst, who said she has known Sadiq since he was in the seventh grade, said his academic credentials are not in question. 'So I assume this is about his moral character, which I'm happy to speak to,' she said.

An Amherst native, Sadiq converted to Islam and changed his name from Vincent Bias after serving jail time for armed robbery. He was convicted of holding up a bank in Springfield with a loaded 9 mm handgun in 1993 following a stint in the military.

He has since completed college, received a master's degree, married and started a family before serving a one-year internship with now-retired counselor Barry Brooks as a guidance counselor at the middle school.

Amherst Regional Schools Superintendent Jere Hochman has said repeatedly that he would exhaust every opportunity to retain Sadiq, who was selected from a pool of about 20 candidates, in the position.

Story said she contacted Hochman to say she would like to help and has been in touch with Sadiq, who scheduled Wednesday's hearing. Hochman will also attend.

About a dozen area educators also have written a letter to the DOE in support of Sadiq.

Some parents, meanwhile, remain skeptical about his appointment. TracyLee Boutilier, one of them, met with Sadiq on Tuesday, to tell him why. It is not that she doesn't believe a person can be rehabilitated, she told the Gazette. She questions why the school system kept guarded the fact that he had a criminal record. All the time that Sadiq interned at the middle school last year, parents were not informed about his past, Boutilier said.

The decision not to give parents that information compromised their ability to make decisions about what is in their children's best interests, Boutilier said. It has undermined her confidence in the school system.

'I came out of there feeling like I did most of the talking,' she said of her meeting with Sadiq.

Sadiq asked her to focus on how he acts with the children and how he does from this point forward, Boutilier said.

Administrators who have come forward to defend Sadiq's hiring and to point out that he has turned his life around have missed the point she and some other parents have been trying to make, Boutilier said.

'I feel as a parent I have a right to know who is around my children.'

As a black woman, Boutilier said, she also finds problematic assertions that Sadiq's race - he is also black - is a factor.

'It's not about race. It's not about him as a person, whether he's a good husband or good father. It's not because he's a veteran or not a veteran. The fact that he's a veteran has nothing to do with it. If anything, that, to me, should have told him not to do what he did,' Boutilier said.

Boutilier said she puts some stock in the DOE's decision not to grant Sadiq a license. But if it turns out he does obtain one and stays on the job, she will give him the benefit of the doubt. 'I'm willing to take his actions from this point forward,' she said.

According to the DOE's Criminal Offender Record Information policy, a criminal record will not automatically disqualify an applicant for a license.

Boutilier does question whether Story should get involved, as it could set a precedent and anyone who is denied a license from here on in would feel entitled to a defense from her.

Longtime acquaintance

Story and Sadiq go back a long way, though. She met him when he played football and baseball with her son Tim. 'He was a very nice seventh-grader,' Story said. She recalled he didn't try to act 'cool' like some of the other boys did, and that he was thoughtful whenever she talked to him.

'Then I lost touch with him for a while and when I heard he had gone to jail for armed robbery, I was very distressed,' she said.

Story ran into him again at a potluck dinner to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Pomeroy Lane Cooperative, a mixed community of low-and middle-income people, some of whom are mentally or physically disabled, where her son Christopher lives.

'I talked to him and he was just so gentle. The times I was around him, he was always very calm. There was just a really nice sense about him.'

Her husband, Ronald Story, an assistant football coach when Sadiq was on the team in junior high school, also felt that way about him, Story said.

When she read in the paper that he was going to be a guidance counselor, Story said she was delighted.

'Oh, what an excellent choice. He's an extraordinary young man and he always stood out to me.'

The uproar that has ensued since his criminal record was publicized has been 'outrageous,' Story said.

Mary Carey can be reached at mary.carey@att.net.

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