Public relations firm stops working for Central Bucks, a district accused of anti-LGBTQ bias, after receiving ‘targeted harassment’

A public relations firm hired by the Central Bucks School District as it faced criticism over its treatment of LGBTQ students and policy banning sexualized content in library books has cut ties with the district after receiving “targeted harassment,” the district said Thursday.

Devine+Partners, hired last year to develop a public relations strategy for the district and provide crisis communications, faced “a group of community members … threatening their association with our district in ways that are, at best caustic, and at worst, malicious and false,” Central Bucks said in a message to the community. It said the firm had experienced “much turmoil” and “has maintained transparency with the district about the implications they are facing in the wake of these attacks.”

“In consideration of these circumstances, Central Bucks and Devine+Partners have mutually agreed to dissolve their relationship,” the district said.

Kevin Shinkle, senior vice president of Devine+Partners, said in an email that the district’s “statement speaks for itself, and we have nothing more to add.”

The district had contracted with Devine+Partners last July at an estimated cost of $15,000 a month, an agreement that was supposed to run through June 2023, because it wanted to increase communications with its families, and because it had been receiving “a much higher volume of media inquiries.”

The firm repeatedly faced pushback from community members who questioned its cost and said the district wouldn’t need to hire public relations help if it hadn’t brought controversy on itself.

Community members also took issue with statements released by the district — including around a policy the school board passed this year banning staff from advocating about “partisan, political, or social policy issues” to students. The board’s president, Dana Hunter, had said the policy would ban the display of Pride flags — a fierce point of contention in the district, which is facing a federal investigation into allegations it has created a hostile environment for LGBTQ students.

In a message sent to the community by the district earlier this month, Hunter then said the policy did not ban Pride flags, “as is being alleged,” but “simply limits their use to when it is related to the day’s curricular lessons.”

Zandi Hall, a senior at Central Bucks West, called the statement about Devine+Partners’ departure “a smokescreen to hide the real issue — that the district wanted someone to spin their policies in ways that made them look less bad.”

Five days ago, Hall had posted on a “SaveCBSD” Instagram account she runs: “Dear Devine & Partners, Stop hurting kids. Quit CBSD. Just do it already.” Hall also started a petition, CB Taxpayers Against Wasteful Spending, that criticized the firm’s cost as well as the district’s hiring of former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain to respond to the complaints of anti-LGBTQ bias at a cost of $940 an hour. As of Thursday morning, the petition garnered more than 800 signatures.

Hall said that “people got angry, and they signed petitions about it. … They made Instagram posts tagging Devine and Partners.” She said she didn’t view her actions as harassment: “It was all just, ‘Please, we don’t want you in our school district anymore.’”