Souderton school board member tells angry residents his lewd Kamala Harris comment ‘is being twisted by my opposition’

A defiant Bill Formica rejected calls to resign from the Souderton Area School District board during a raucous meeting Thursday, casting the outcry over his social media post that Kamala Harris “blew a lot of dudes” as the product of “partisan politics.”

“This is being twisted by my opposition into a convenient narrative,” Formica said, as he was repeatedly interrupted by boos, and nearly shouted down by residents who packed the Indian Valley Middle School auditorium — many holding posters that read “Formica Resign Now” and wearing T-shirts that read “Character Counts,” a reference to the district’s slogan.

While Formica apologized for being “impulsive and juvenile,” he said that “no rational person could be that upset” about his post, which was in response to another user who asked: “Name ONE thing this chick has accomplished, politically.” Formica said his post was a criticism of Harris’ policies, “not her race or her gender.” He added that he expected to be called a white supremacist, “the tired label applied to all white alpha males to shut us up.”

An angry crowd rejected Formica’s explanation.

“What you said was degrading. It was misogyny. You can laugh that off, but it’s true,” Lauren McShea, a mother of third and fifth graders, said, addressing Formica during public comment.

Like others, McShea noted that Formica has a history of making offensive comments: Before the meeting, protesters who gathered outside the middle school held poster boards with screenshots of other social media posts, including comments that people who don’t speak English “are here for the handouts (my tax money);” that he doesn’t want teachers “spewing their morals, values, politics and idiology [sic] on my children or grandchildren;” and that “my answer to diversity training would be ‘F off.’” (Formica, who appears to have deleted his X account, said Thursday he had “experienced a profound peace” over the past month since leaving social media.)

“You have demonstrated you are unfit to make decisions for all students,” McShea said. As for the rest of the school board — which initially appointed Formica to a seat last year, before he was elected as part of a slate of Republican candidates in November — “the response to this unacceptable behavior has been so disappointing. You haven’t said anything, and the silence is deafening.”

School board president Ken Keith — who repeatedly called the meeting into recess as shouts broke out in the auditorium — said at the start that “the district has been clear it does not condone the comments” made by Formica, whose post about Harris has engulfed the district in controversy since late July.

Imploring residents to remain civil, Keith said the board had received death threats by email and phone that it reported to the police. He called the backlash “simply unacceptable.”

Jeffrey Sultanik, the board’s solicitor, told the crowd the board had little power to remove Formica, apart from a provision in the school code that allows a board to exclude a member for missing two successive meetings without an excuse.

Beyond that, he said, “the only way to exclude a board member” is if the district attorney determines the member “has committed a high crime,” Sultanik said.

That didn’t stop residents from continuing to demand Formica’s resignation during a 90-minute public comment period — facing Formica as he leaned back in his chair, a slight smile on his face.

Referring to Formica’s post that he doesn’t want teachers “spewing their morals,” Keith Dobson said: “Your morals are so much better?” Dobson noted another post in which Formica questioned why people “gushed” over teachers, even though they had a “great gig” and “couldn’t be fired” — saying Formica had demonstrated “a profound misunderstanding of the teaching profession.”

Brian Farrell, a Souderton alumnus and Army veteran, drew a standing ovation when he told the board that after being awarded a Purple Heart for his service in Afghanistan, “the one thing I do feel qualified to comment on is leadership and the lack thereof.”

“Mr. Formica, you can speak your mind, but step out of the leadership job,” Farrell said, adding that the board was “no better than Bill.”

While Formica’s opponents rallied outside the middle school before the meeting — organized by Souderton for All, a coalition supporting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts — a group of supporters gathered near the school entrance. One man played guitar while singing “Awesome God.”

Those who addressed the board said that Formica had apologized, and that the community should demonstrate forgiveness. Richard Sacks said he favored First Amendment rights, and called the protest against Formica “a political hack job.”

Others said the bigger problem was indoctrination in the schools. Matt Simkins told the board he was more concerned about inappropriate library books and “ideas put into children’s heads than what an adult is posting on Twitter.”

Kaitlin Derstine, a local conservative activist, was repeatedly interrupted as she read a passage from the novel Push, by Sapphire, about a father raping his daughter.

“The same progressives who fought me” in opposition to book bans “are the same ones demanding Bill Formica’s resignation,” Derstine said. Another woman said children should learn “reading, writing and arithmetic. We don’t need them to know sex education.”

As Formica read his comments at the start of the meeting, he said he wouldn’t be forced into resigning.

“I can’t be intimidated, because I just don’t care what people think about me,” he said.