Central Bucks’ new lawyers may include former U.S. Attorney McSwain in investigation into anti-LGBTQ discrimination

Former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain may be part of the legal team representing the Central Bucks School District after an ACLU complaint alleged the district and its board have perpetuated a “hostile environment” for LGBTQ students.

Mired in mounting conflict, the nine-member school board will vote Tuesday on hiring representation from the Duane Morris law firm — led by McSwain and former federal prosecutor Michael Rinaldi — after the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania last month filed a complaint about Central Bucks’ treatment of LGBTQ students, triggering a federal investigation by the Department of Education.

If approved by the board, McSwain and Rinaldi will “perform an internal investigation into these issues and review the district’s policies related to these matters,” board president Dana Hunter wrote Monday in a letter to parents. “We are eager for the findings of the Duane Morris investigation in order to address what has otherwise been, for nearly a month, hidden information.”

Filed on behalf of seven transgender and nonbinary Central Bucks students, the ACLU’s 72-page complaint asserts that the district and board policies have contributed to discrimination on the basis of sex, with the group’s lawyers alleging a “pattern of pervasive and often serious harassment and bullying of LGBTQ students” in many of the district’s 23 schools.

The students’ names were redacted from the version of the report made public and provided to the school board — a decision the ACLU has said was made to protect its clients, but one the school board has said prevents it from addressing harassment allegations.

» READ MORE: Central Bucks board denies discrimination allegations, moves forward on policy that ACLU warns hurts LGBTQ students

The complaint, filed with the Department of Education and U.S. Department of Justice, calls on the agencies to order the district to follow federal recommendations for providing an inclusive environment for LGBTQ youth.

The Department of Education announced last month that it had opened an investigation into the matter.

Previously, the board was on track to consider a vote on an advocacy policy Tuesday, which the majority of the board has said will enforce “neutrality” in the classroom but that the ACLU warned is “plainly intended” to stifle staff support of LGBTQ students and prohibit the display of rainbow Pride flags in classrooms.

In an email, a school district spokesperson said that any discussion of board policy at the November meeting has been paused until after the group votes on hiring the Philadelphia-based law firm.

Details of the pending agreement, including how much the district plans to pay the firm, were not made immediately available.

A spokesperson for Duane Morris declined to comment on the appointment.

While McSwain ran for Pennsylvania governor in the Republican primary this year, his deleted Facebook comments calling an invitation to a West Chester Gender-Sexuality Alliance “leftist political indoctrination” drew outrage from some parents in March. His campaign spokesperson at the time said the former U.S. attorney — appointed by former President Donald Trump — believed it “inappropriate for Pennsylvania tax dollars to be spent in public schools to explicitly encourage the progressive social justice agenda.”

» READ MORE: Who is Bill McSwain, the former U.S. attorney running for Pa. governor?

Hunter’s message to parents Monday called the ACLU’s complaint “a partisan, political tool,” adding that “the Board is not going to be distracted by the ACLU’s tactics.”

“We will continue to focus on academics and on common-sense decisions to support the educational experience for every student in the district,” she wrote. “The Board will continue to support our parents and their right to direct the course of their children’s education, and the Board will continue to do the work for which it was elected.”

Not all on the school board agree. Member Karen Smith — part of a three-person contingent often at odds with the board’s Republican majority — called Hunter’s email “another attempt to deflect and divert from the bad policies and procedures passed by the board majority over the last few months.”

She said she intended to vote against hiring the law firm, saying, “I cannot approve spending what is likely to be tens of thousands of additional taxpayer funds to defend this legal action, which so easily could have been avoided.”

The board is expected to meet Tuesday evening.