Central Bucks students protest ban on Pride flags and ‘advocacy’ in classrooms, the second demonstration in a week

As he passed out fliers at school Friday morning for a protest that drew more than 80 people outside Central Bucks West High School later that day — many waving rainbow Pride flags and holding posters with phrases like “Pride is not political” and “Say Gay” — Leo Burchell heard a student use a homophobic slur.

It was a personal attack, said Burchell, a senior at West who is transgender. But he sees a broader targeting in the latest policy passed by the Central Bucks School Board — one promising to instill neutrality in the classroom, and expected to force the removal of Pride flags and anything else deemed to be advocating a political view or “social policy.”

“This district is not being neutral by taking these flags away,” Burchell, holding a megaphone, told the crowd assembled. “And who gets to decide what is and what is not neutral? Where do they draw the line?”

The student-led protest was the second demonstration in a week against the new policy, which the Republican-majority board voted 6-3 to pass earlier this month. Proponents said the measure — which bans teachers from advocating “partisan, political, or social policy issues” in classrooms — would promote balance and prevent bias from creeping into instruction.

But it has outraged community members who see it as targeting an already vulnerable group of children at a time when the district faces a federal investigation into allegations of anti-LGBTQ discrimination: Pride flags have been a flashpoint of discussion before the school board, and its president has said they will be prohibited under the new measure.

The policy has also instilled fear in some teachers about what they can and cannot say. Earlier in the week, a group of teachers walked out of school rather than attend a town hall meeting with Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh about the policy.

“I think many staff felt to attend ... would make them complicit,” said Kristy Trammell, an English teacher at Holicong Middle School who estimated about 60 staff members participated in Tuesday’s protest. Trammell, a co-adviser of the school’s Gay Straight Alliance, felt the policy was aimed at a “specific type of classroom décor.”

But for the first time in her 16-year career in the district, Trammell said, she’s also fearful she could be punished for what she says. She’s currently teaching Night, Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir, and worries that discussions of book banning during the Nazi era could run afoul of the new policy, “because it’s become a political issue in the community.”

The district last year passed a policy banning sexualized content in school libraries — another measure critics said would have a disproportionate impact on LGBTQ students, and cited in a complaint filed in October by the American Civil Liberties Union. On Friday, the district sent parents a message about the book challenge process, with regulations it said were reviewed pro bono by a conservative legal group. Allegations the policy is aiming to remove books on LBGTQ+ stories and genres were untrue, it said.

Lucabaugh — who held another town hall Friday inside Central Bucks West while students and others protested outside — said in a statement Friday that he had been addressing teacher concerns about the advocacy policy during the town halls, “providing clarity so that teachers can move forward with confidence in their jobs.”

Teachers “should continue to teach as they do,” he said, “with a focus on developing students’ abilities to check facts, research sources, and use those skills to form and rationally express their own opinions, which is a critical tool for success.”

During Friday’s protest, several students read statements that they said were provided to them by teachers who were too scared to speak publicly, including one voicing “palpable concern” about retribution, and another describing how they were now curtailing their interactions with students: “We stick to the textbooks and avoid humanity.”

Rebecca Cartee-Haring, a Central Bucks West teacher suing the district over pay equity, told the crowd that “it’s a big problem when you have six people on a school board” who have the wrong idea about what teaching is, “and a superintendent who doesn’t clarify what actually happens in our classrooms.” At one point during the protest, a woman shouted: “Down with the scary six!”

Other adults encouraged the students. “Keep it up. You’re on the right side of history. And history will come around to you, too,” said Ava Plakins, a parent of two Central Bucks graduates.

Students huddled together with Pride flags draped over their shoulders let up cheers as passing drivers honked their horns in support.

“They want to clamp their hands over our mouths and win this,” CJ Weintraub, a queer senior at Central Bucks West said of the district, “but we won’t let them.”