A Cautionary Tale
Written by Deb Burch
I grew up in Bucks County, PA and was a teacher there before moving to MA, and I still have close friends living, working, and raising their child in Central Bucks School District. Due to this, I have followed the turmoil that occurred in Doylestown, PA. Central Bucks School District is one of the largest in PA with 17,000+ students. Many come from wealthy and upper middle-class homes and 90% of the high school graduates are college bound. (Central Bucks School District Profile, 2023-2024)
In May 2021, a parent, D. Cannon, a member of Moms For Liberty, came before the school committee during Covid to complain that “the school committee is in collusion with unions, community activists, physicians, and organizations to push an agenda for political and financial gain, and to steer ideologies about sexuality and instill fear and compliance into our children’s minds.” (Emily Rizzo, 7/7/22, WHYY, part 4 of the Podcast ‘Schooled’) At a later school committee meeting that spring, she again spoke in the public speaking section about the district’s Human Growth and Development classes. This time she claimed that the classes were “grooming” children because they used images of body parts (“sexual organs” in her words). She claimed that there were “demonic adults recruiting, brainwashing, and participating in unconscionable behaviors with children.” (Emily Rizzo, 7/7/22, WHYY part 4 of the Podcast ‘Schooled’)
Then, Ms. Cannon, another member of Moms for Liberty, and a third woman, all registered Republicans entered the race for school committee seats. They were all endorsed by the Proud Americans Patriot Network. “PAPN has been linked to the Three Percenters Movement, a right-wing militia group.” (Emily Rizzo, 7/7/22, WHYY part 4 of the Podcast ‘Schooled’) All three women were bankrolled by Paul Martino, a venture capitalist and his wife who donated $239,000.00 to their campaigns. This amount of money is amazing, considering that a 2018 survey by the National School Boards Association found that 75% of elected school board officials spent less than $1000.00 on their campaigns. (Emily Rizzo, 11/11/23, NPR All Things Considered, 2pm) and (Katie Meyer & Mallory Falk, 11/12/21, WHYY Listen Live Pennsylvania Education)
In November 2021, all three women won seats, making the school committee 6-3 for the now right-wing majority. (Emily Rizzo, 7/7/22, WHYY part 4 of the Podcast Schooled) The new superintendent of Central Bucks School District, Adam Lucabaugh, who had started his position in April 2021, after being a principal at one of the high schools for many years, quickly aligned with the new majority on the school committee.
In March 2022, a transgender middle school student gave Mr. Burgess, a teacher, a list of the bullying he had experienced that school year. He and his family had reported it to the school administrators, but the situation was unchanged. Mr. Burgess, at the student and family’s request, filed a complaint with the US Department of Civil Rights. In May the district learned of Mr. Burgess’ filing, he was suspended for the remainder of the school year. He did not hear anything from the district until one week before the start of the new school year and was reassigned to a new school at a new grade level and with a different curriculum. Ultimately, he filed a lawsuit, through the ACLU, against the district. (Vic Walczak & Richard Ting, 4/11/23, ACLU of PA) and (Zachary Schermele, 10/7/22 NBC News) Also, in March 2022, teachers were told that there shouldn’t be any book that is “sexual, violent, or has any other objectional content in it” on their shelves. Some teachers spent hours culling books, some just used the Moms for Liberty list of objectional books and removed them. (Emily Rizzo, 7/7/22 WHYY part 4 of the Podcast “Schooled”)
In May 2022 a directive was issued that teachers and staff could only use names and pronouns listed in the school database and LGBT training for staff was cancelled. (Zachary Schermele, 10/7/22, NBC News) Also, the Human Growth and Development classes, which were lessons on puberty for the 4th through 6th grades, were put online, made optional, and restricted to the student’s birth gender only. (Emily Rizzo, 5/18/22, WHYY Pennsylvania Education)
In July of 2022 the district book policy for texts, library books and classroom libraries was changed in the final draft and any book challenged by a parent no longer needed to be evaluated in its entirety for its literary merit and there was no need to consult with professional reviews and journals for reader suitability. As passed, at this school committee meeting, books with “inappropriate sexualized content and implied nudity” were to be reviewed. During review, the book is removed from use. The final decision on a book is by the school committee, though the Superintendent has unilateral power to remove a book. (Emily Rizzo, 2/2/23, WHYY Pennsylvania Education reprinted from the Bucks County Courier Times)
In January 2023, policy 321 was issued that teachers and staff must be neutral on partisan, political and social policy issues. (Jonathan Allen and Hannah Beier, 6/26/23, Reuters) and (Aziza Shuler and Kent Corrado, 1/10/23, CBS Philadelphia) This policy censored teacher and staff advocacy completely. Pride flags, stickers, posters and many other items in classrooms and offices had to be removed. One librarian was told to remove 4 posters with quotes from the Holocaust survivor, Eli Weisel. The public outcry was so intense that the principal reversed his decision within 24 hours on this one instance. (Jo Clavagia, 2/10/23, Bucks County Courier Times) Part of Policy 321 included that teachers and staff were reprimanded if they spoke out against any of the policies. (Emily Rizzo, 2/11/23, WHYY Listen Live)
In February 2023 the book policy was altered again. It was opened to include book challenges from any resident, not just parents. This increased the total number of challenged books removed for review to over 65 books between late 2022 and early 2023 and all happened to be found on a book reporting site for Moms for Liberty. Most of the challenged books were about LGBTQ characters or characters of color. (Jonathan Allen and Hannah Beier, 6/26/23, Reuters) and (Emily Rizzo, 2/2/23, WHYY Pennsylvania Education) This was also the month that the school committee received a letter from 52 school board directors from 25 Pennsylvania districts condemning Central Bucks for “fostering intolerance”, “discrimination”, “targeting LGBTQ students for political purposes” and “censoring advocacy”. They also asked that the policies be repealed immediately. (Emily Rizzo, 2/15/23, WHYY Listen Live)
At this point, the district had two lawsuits that they were fighting, one by Mr. Burgess and the second by a group of 7 families and their transgendered/nonbinary students through the ACLU for “persistent and severe bullying”, including a federal complaint that the district created a “widespread culture of discrimination towards TLGBQIA students, especially transgendered and nonbinary.” (Media Contact, 10/6/22, ACLU Press Release)
In August 2023 the school committee gave an early 5 year contract to Superintendent Lucabaugh, even though he was only in year 2 of his existing 5 year contract. The new contract gave him a $90,000.00 pay raise, taking his salary to $315,000 per year. He became the second highest paid superintendent in the state. (Katie Katro and Katherine Scott, 11/15/23, WHYY Pennsylvania Education)
During the spring and summer of 2023, concerned parents formed the Central Bucks School District Neighbors United and raised funds for 5 Democratic candidates to run against the existing school committee members. In November 2023 all 5 were elected, ousting the Moms for Liberty candidates and flipping the board 6 to 3 Democratic. (Rob Boston, 11/13/23, Americans United-Public Schools) There were 2 main reasons given for the 2023 electoral turnover. The first was “rather than focus on student improvement, the board obsessed over culture-war issues, calling for book bans and restricting the rights of transgendered students.” (Rob Boston, 11/13/23, Americans United) The second reason was fiscal responsibility, including the 40% pay raise given to Superintendent Lucabaugh, over 1 million spent on a law firm following the discrimination claims, and the $140,000.00 spent on a PR firm to manage media requests. (Emily Rizzo, 11/11/23, NPR All Things Considered 2 pm)
Just after the November election, Superintendent Lucabaugh resigned. He did not attend the school committee meeting where they approved a severance package for him of over $700,000.00. This was a year’s salary and $200,000.00 in unused sick time as per his contract. (Katie Katro and Katrherine Scott, 11/15/23, WHYY Action News) This decision was unusual in its timing, as out-going school committees usually do not make big decisions, leaving them for the in-coming school committee. At that same November meeting, the school committee voted to restrict transgendered athletes to play on teams consistent with their sex assigned at birth. (6ABC Digital Staff and TaRhonda Thomas, 11/15/23, 6ABC) The expenses incurred by this right-wing school committee meant that some faculty, staff, and programs had to be cut, such as the planned full-day kindergarten had to remain a half-day program. (Freda R. Savana, 3/13/24, Bucks County Herald)
In closing, I would hate to see Methuen follow the same path as Central Bucks. Please pay attention to the agenda of the school committee, research the origins of new policies, keep the focus on student improvement, and not culture-war issues. All students deserve a safe, inviting school environment in which to learn.