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

In the Central Bucks school board’s first meeting since the ACLU last week filed a federal complaint alleging the district has perpetuated a “hostile environment” for LGBTQ students, the board’s president Tuesday denied discrimination allegations and called on the civil rights group to release the redacted names of the bullied trans and nonbinary students, saying that the complaint’s “anonymous hidden nature makes it impossible” to address harassment in schools.

During the same meeting and after hours of community student and staff outcry, the board voted 6-3 to move forward a proposed advocacy policy the board’s majority says is to ensure “neutrality” in the district, but that the ACLU’s filing warned is “plainly intended” to dampen staff support of LGBTQ students by removing pride flags from classrooms.

» READ MORE: ACLU has filed a federal complaint alleging Central Bucks has created a ‘hostile environment’ for LGBTQ students

“The district is resolute and united in its commitment to every single student in our community, every single one,” said President Dana Hunter at the top of the meeting, encouraging bullied students to come forward to their principal, teachers, and administration. “Everyone can learn, grow and be safe, welcomed, cared for and supported. That means the district is also resolute and united in its zero tolerance for discrimination, bullying, or harassment of any kind.”

Witold Walczak, legal director at the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said that “if and when” the Departments of Justice and Education elect to investigate the group’s complaint, the school board will be provided an un-redacted filing with the names of the seven transgender and nonbinary students. Until then, he said, “We’re not going to unnecessarily expose our clients.”

“If they want to know who these kids are, they know,” Walczak said. “They’re the ones they’ve been disrespecting and ignoring for the past years.”

Walczak added that the complaint may not be the end of ACLU’s legal actions against the Central Bucks School District, the fourth-largest in Pennsylvania. “If they’re going to keep going, then so are we,” Walczak said.

» READ MORE: Central Bucks parents protest removal of Pride flags and other actions they say are hostile to LGBTQ students

The 72-page complaint — with 27 pages of redacted student testimony — filed last week with the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education, accuses the district of violating LGBTQ students’ Title IX and Fourteenth Amendment rights through unchecked bullying, harassment complaints ignored by administrators, lack of support for professional development and resources related to LGBTQ students, and policies “that target LGBTQ+ students.” The complaint calls on the agencies to order the district to follow federal recommendations for providing an inclusive environment for LGBTQ youth.

Bullied students opted to eat lunch in the bathroom or classrooms over the cafeteria, where harassment ran rampant, the ACLU said, and lawyers found multiple instances of self-harm in bullied students.

The filing placed the district’s Republican-majority school board and administration at the center of many of its allegations around policies it said were aimed at LGBTQ students, specifically: calling pride flags “political symbols” and directing teachers to remove them from classrooms, directing teachers not to use students’ preferred names and pronouns without parental consent, and enacting new library and textbook policies the group says is a “thinly disguised effort” to censor LGBTQ materials.

» READ MORE: Central Bucks has approved a library policy targeting ‘sexualized content’ in books. Here’s what we know.

The complaint last week also spotlighted a proposed district advocacy policy that if passed, would prohibit teacher discussion and classroom “decor” pertaining to sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, or politics unless it is specific to class curriculum. The ACLU has said the policy is “plainly intended” to discourage staff support of LGBTQ students.

After two hours of public comment from nearly 40 speakers on the policy and the district’s treatment of LGBTQ students — most against, with around a dozen in support — the board voted to approve a first reading of the draft.

With some people wearing rainbow shirts and others waving pride flags, many speakers expressed their disappointment in the board.

Nancy Flanagan Kelly, a counselor at Central Bucks East, told the board that “things right now are hard, they are very hard.”

“Morale is very low. People are exhausted physically and mentally. And they’re scared,” Kelly said, adding that she was nervous to speak publicly before the board. “Many of us staff, we look at Policy 321, and we wonder … when did you lose trust in the people that you entrust your children with every single day?”

Displaying the pride flag in her office, Kelly said, sends a message of “you are welcome here.”

“And I do mean everyone is welcome. Where’s the divisiveness in that?”

Studies show that spaces perceived to be affirming can save the lives of young LGBTQ people, who are at a higher risk of bullying and self-harm.

Kevin McDermott, a Central Bucks teacher of 29 years, appeared before the board in a rainbow shirt emblazoned with the word “proud.” He told the board he wears the shirt — a gift from his daughter — on dress-down days in the district, “so they know I’m an advocate for them, the most marginalized kids in the building.”

“These policies are warthogs, ugly and dangerous,” added Stephen Albert, a retired Central Bucks teacher of nearly three decades. “To respond as you have that, ‘All students and teachers are cared for and respected as members of our learning and teaching community,’ is ... categorically false.”

“Why don’t you listen to us?” Leo Burchell, a Central Bucks West student and president of the school’s sexuality and gender alliance, asked the board. “I can scream until I’m hoarse, but you still will not listen. Do you have the courage to look me in the eye and tell me why you’re making my days at school harder?”

» READ MORE: Opinion: I’m a trans teen in Central Bucks. Here, it doesn’t ‘get better.’

The board also heard from around a dozen speakers — some in the conservative Moms For Liberty group shirts — who were in favor of the advocacy policy, and thanked the board for their actions.

“I truly admire your courage. I know it hasn’t been easy,” said one woman, calling the display of pride flags a “newly accepted form of discrimination” that “elevate[s] one minority group and marginalize[s] another.”

“Our flags don’t label us, identify us, or keep us safe,” she said.

“To think there are teachers, administrators and board members who feel they know better what is needed for my child who feel they need to keep my child safe from me is truly laughable,” said Tricia Doebler, vice president of the Bucks County Moms For Liberty.

Wearing a “Protect Trans Kids” T-shirt, Karen Smith — one of the three board members who voted against moving the policy forward — said it is “difficult for me to articulate how angry and embarrassed I am by this policy.”

“The purpose of this policy has been stated as a need for neutrality in the classroom so that all students feel supported,” Smith said. “This is an impossible task. Is there such a thing as neutrality? People bring their own perspectives and vision into a space, their background colors how the space is seen.”

The proposed policy, Smith said, “hurts all students and staff, and in particular, our LGBTQ students.”

“A few months ago, I said it feels like we are on a runaway train of bad policies and no one will admit there are brakes on the train. And tragically, we are still in the same situation.”

The school board is expected to continue discussion on the proposed policy, and is slated to next meet Nov. 15.