As the clock winds down on the end of Superintendent Patricia Gardners tenure in the Palmer Public School District on Oct. 31, parents have reached out to MassLive to speak about their experiences of feeling retaliated against by Gardner and silenced and ignored by other school officials in recent years.

She told me I needed to walk away quietly or she would make my life hell, parent Susan Fitzgerald said about Gardner. Fitzgerald pulled her young son out of the Palmer school district earlier this year due to constant bullying by an older boy and retaliation by administrators after expressing her concerns, she said.

It took over a year for Fitzgerald to try to get in front of the Palmer School Committee to share her story, she said. Thats because Gardner issued a no-trespass order in February banning her from school property, which she said prevented her from speaking at public School Committee meetings. MassLive obtained a copy of her trespass order signed by Gardner.