A Downingtown school board candidate pretended to be the ‘Society of College Medicine’ to challenge books

The first warning from the Society of College Medicine landed in inboxes in June 2021, with the subject line “Violation — Book Red Flagged.”

“It has come to our attention that a ‘Red Flagged’ book has appeared on your DEI Reading List,” the email to Downingtown Area School District administrators and school board members, began, citing White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo.

“We recommend this being removed immediately, and sensitivity counseling/training administered to whomever recommended/allowed this book to a school population,” said the email, which didn’t have a name attached to it, but was signed by the society’s “Violations Department.”

Several more emails arrived in the coming weeks, warning Downingtown that the society had now issued five “tier-1″ and eight “tier-2″ violations for books it deemed “extremely divisive.” The society said it had given Downingtown’s DEI reading list a “D,” “which is in the bottom tier of all schools we assess globally.”

But the Society for College Medicine is merely a website that appears to be made up by a man who is not a physician but is running for the Downingtown school board.

Christopher Bressi, a Republican backed by the conservative “parental rights” group Moms for Liberty, previously listed the society on his resume and referenced it in Facebook posts, according to community members who have documented the ties. The society’s website has also mentioned Bressi.

It’s one of numerous websites he appears to have created that link to one another and profess to be “global networks” of academic professionals.

When Bressi announced his candidacy, community members searched online to learn more about him. They found a resume on LinkedIn that mentioned the Society of College Medicine — the first of several connections that would emerge. (The mention has since disappeared from his resume, which also doesn’t use his full name.)

“Why would this person who has been acting so underhandedly to target our school district now want to be on the school board? That’s a concern,” said one parent, who like several interviewed asked to remain anonymous, fearing harassment and threats from other community members.

Bressi did not respond to requests for comment, but in a Facebook post in March, he said he had never wanted to run for school board, “which used to be the most trivial position on planet earth,” but “was convinced to after five — yes 5 requests.”

He said in that post that since announcing his run, he had been harassed, bullied and doxed, and that his opponents were afraid that he would “bring rationality back and actually listen to parents.”

The Society of College Medicine website does not claim to have anything to do with medicine, instead billing itself as a “School Safety and Preparedness Network,” with “current members and alumni ... from virtually every college and/or university in America and beyond.” But its content consists entirely of links: to colleges, to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website, and to other websites affiliated with Bressi. As of Wednesday, after The Inquirer reached out for comment, the list of member colleges was deleted.

Bressi describes himself as a professor — appearing on Moms for Liberty’s endorsement list as “Professor Christopher Bressi” — who began working in the “higher education sector” as a research assistant in 1998.

“Since those humbler beginnings, I have held various, senior-level positions including Academic Dean, Department Chair, Site Director, Director of Education, and National Director,” he says on his campaign website.

He doesn’t say where he’s worked. But a LinkedIn resume for “Christopher B.” on LinkedIn that uses the same Martin Luther King Jr. quote as his campaign site — “Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve” — lists numerous positions, including “executive director of higher education.”

That position appears to be with Aspect Consulting, an IT consulting company based in King of Prussia; the company did not return a message seeking comment. A former colleague said Bressi’s role when they worked together was connecting education institutions with consultants that could advise them about software.

“The fact that he says he’s the director of higher ed, that’s a service we provide. ... But he’s not the service, he’s the go-between,” said the former colleague, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Bressi’s resume also says he has been an adjunct technology professor with Delaware County Community College for 20 years; a college spokesperson said she could not comment on employment information.

In other roles, Bressi says he worked as a technology professor for ITT Technical Institute, the for-profit education chain that shut down in 2016; and as academic dean for the former Career Education Corp., now Perdoceo, a company that owns for-profit colleges. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

He also says he was a law and justice professor from 2004 to 2006 for Alvernia University, “in the Philadelphia and Exton PA Location(s).” Bressi says that, as “site director and professor” for the PA Institute of Forensic Science, he “worked in conjunction with Alvernia College to expand/open a satellite campus in Exton, PA.”

An Alvernia spokesperson said academic records reflect classes taught by Bressi in 2005, “but we haven’t operated a site in Exton.”

It’s unclear what the PA Institute of Forensic Science is; it doesn’t appear in Google searches. An earlier version of Bressi’s resume described the Society of College Medicine as “formed from” that institute.

While Democrats control the Downingtown school board currently, Republicans have in the past. As in other suburban districts, partisan tensions erupted during the pandemic.

“People are still calling me an abuser” for supporting masking, said Audrey Blust, a retired teacher and Democrat running against Bressi for reelection.

Compared with when she first ran four years ago, Blust said misinformation abounds, and Republicans act “as though we’re doing something nefarious.”

The emails sent by the society came as a group of Downingtown parents were attacking the district’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as “critical race theory” — an academic framework examining systemic racism that had suddenly become a target of the right nationally.

Bressi began commenting on Facebook about the “bigotry of CRT,” according to screenshots taken by community members.

In a “No Left Turn in Education” group, Bressi — using the name Christopher Bre — shared an email from the Society for College Medicine notifying Downingtown of “Red Flag” violations, and referred to “pressure from the Society of College Medicine” that he suggested was having an impact.

But district administrators had already disregarded the messages. “There is no Society of College Medicine, let alone a violations department,” Justin Brown, Downingtown’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion, wrote in an email to school board members. “This is simply someone trying to troll the district.”

The society emailed administrators again in December 2022, objecting to plans for students to attend an Alice in Wonderland pantomime play at the People’s Light and Theatre Company in Malvern that featured a drag performer as the Cheshire Cat, sparking controversy among some parents.

“As you can imagine, we strongly frown on the notion of using academic time/hours ... to encourage attendance of obviously politically motivated and highly charged shows/rallies/events,” read the email, again signed by the violations department.

» READ MORE: Consultant hired by Pennridge schools told Moms for Liberty audience that ‘the fox is in the henhouse’

Bressi’s role in the Society of College Medicine is apparent from reviewing other sites, such as Space Tourism Magazine — which does not appear to be a magazine, but says it partners with “most major Space Tourism providers” and “can negotiate the best pricing possible” for trips to space. This website was taken down as of Wednesday night.

That site said it’s a “division of Bressi LLC,” which Bressi describes as a “diversified holding company focusing on the Craft Food & Beverage Sector(s) as well as STEM/STEAM sectors.” (A LinkedIn page for Bressi LLC lists an address that corresponds to an Italian grocery store in Kulpmont, Northumberland County.)

Both the Space Tourism and Society of College Medicine sites linked to “our flagship academic network,” a LinkedIn group titled “Global Education Executives (No Politics in School) Global Academic Network!” That group said it was “managed by SocietyofCollegeMedicine.com.”

Bressi referred to that LinkedIn group while addressing the Downingtown board in March 2022, opposing a contract with the American School Counselor Association that he said would promote “divisive ideologies.”

Bressi informed the board that “the largest educational management group on LinkedIn” had “recommended collectively that K-12 schools adopt a no-politics-in-the-classroom pledge” — advising the district to “follow suit.”

Bressi’s use of groups he’s created is “absolutely deceptive,” intended to convey authority, said one parent, who requested anonymity because she’s been secretly tracking right-wing community members online.

She said she worries about the prospect of Moms for Liberty and others gaining influence on the school board: “I don’t want my hometown to end up like Florida.”