Central Bucks seniors don’t want officials ‘who have made high school harder and more painful’ handing them their diplomas

Some Central Bucks seniors have asked for someone other than the school board president and superintendent to hand them their diplomas at graduation Thursday — a way to protest a district they say has failed to support LGBTQ students.

What might happen at commencement ceremonies for the district’s three high schools as a result of the requests isn’t clear, as students have circulated a letter calling for the ability to choose a board member “who shares our values for equality, diversity and inclusion.”

One senior at Central Bucks South said their principal granted their request, while another, at Central Bucks West, said her principal told her the district was discussing the issue. The two seniors said other student requests were denied. A district spokesperson did not respond to questions this week about the seniors’ objections or who would be handing out diplomas.

But dissent is likely to be visible in some way Thursday, with some students planning to carry Pride flags — banned from classrooms by the school board.

“All of their policies they’ve passed over the past two years, and the decisions they’ve made for how to handle concerns from LGBTQ+ students in the district — instead of supporting them, they choose to marginalize them further,” said Zandi Hall, the West senior involved with the letter, which says the board’s actions “have made high school harder and more painful for many individuals.”

“I don’t feel comfortable getting my diploma handed to me by people responsible for the pain they’ve caused over the past two years,” Hall said.

Central Bucks has been at the center of what has become a heated political debate nationally around schools and LGBTQ issues. The Republican-controlled Central Bucks board — including its president, Dana Hunter — has passed policies prohibiting “sexualized content” in library books and barring staff advocacy on “partisan, political or social policy issues.”

The American Civil Liberties Union last year accused Central Bucks of creating a “hostile environment” for LGBTQ students, who say those new policies have targeted them. A report by the Duane Morris law firm — commissioned by the district at an estimated $1 million cost — said the allegations were unfounded and accused a district teacher and Democrats of conspiring against the district. The U.S. Department of Education is still investigating.

Hunter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At a school board meeting Tuesday night, Abram Lucabaugh, the district’s superintendent, said the idea that he didn’t support LGBTQ students was “completely inaccurate.”

While “every student deserves to see themselves in the books they read … I will never condone any behavior or decision to promote the sexualization of children in this district,” Lucabaugh said, apparently referring to the district’s recent ban of Gender Queer and This Book is Gay, among other recent positions he has taken as superintendent.

“My beliefs don’t make me a hatemonger, contrary to what is being bantered about in this community,” Lucabaugh said. He added that “placing so much focus on students’ sexual orientation actually reduces them. Our students are so much more than that.”

But students like Ben Busick, a Central Bucks South senior, said the administration and school board have taken steps that “have made the last year and a half of my life very difficult.”

Busick, who is nonbinary, said that they’ve been the subject of slurs, and that teachers don’t always stand up for them when students use incorrect pronouns — a problem they felt was worsened by the district’s policy prohibiting staff advocacy.

“It’s letting students be more awful than they already are,” Busick said, recounting a scenario at the start of the semester in which a teacher defended a student who used the wrong pronouns for them.

While Busick said their principal said they could select a different board member to present their diploma, they weren’t sure whether that would happen Thursday. They said other student requests had been denied — a departure from past years, according to Busick, when students were allowed to request board members with whom they had personal connections.

“For me, it won’t break my stride at all,” said Busick, who, like Hall, plans to carry a Pride flag Thursday. (A Doylestown record store is handing them out free to seniors.) Still, “the idea that it’s going to be sort of still hanging over my head at graduation isn’t something I’m the fondest of.”

Addressing the board Tuesday, CJ Weintraub, a senior at West who is queer, said that “there will be a weight lifted off my shoulders when I no longer have to spend every day in a C.B. school.”

But many students continue to live in fear, Weintraub said, and “the fight is far from over.”