Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is no stranger to LGBTQ+ controversies. Over the years, there have been intense extremist battles over book prohibition and LGBTQ+ rules in the local schools. The school board and parents have continued to disagree over school policies.
However, voters recently rejected all the candidates that were backed by the right-wing hate group Moms For Liberty. Additionally, they’ve replaced the former school board with one they consider far more reasonable.
Within a few hours after being elected, the newly elected board members swung into action, reversing all the hateful policies the former board implemented.
The swearing-in ceremony was also a dramatic event. Instead of swearing on a Bible, the new board president took her oath with her right palm placed on a stack of banned books. The community apparently approved the new board because they applauded and cheered loudly whenever a new member was sworn into office.
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People were so thrilled with the change in the school board that they tailgated outside before the meeting. The meeting room was so full that the crowd spilled outside, with some people having to watch the meeting online. “After two years of chaos and pain, we are ready to move forward,” one public commenter said during the meeting.
The swearing-in of the new school board members flipped the board’s majority in favor of the Democratic party. In the past, the school district had several politically charged disagreements surrounding gender policy, curriculum, disapproved books, etc. Also, the new board elected Karen Smith as the new president and Mariam Mahmud as vice president.
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“I do not take this in my hand lightly,” Smith said after the vote. “I feel it is a very heavy responsibility.” Furthermore, the new board added new items to the agenda, although the previous board had refused to add new items earlier. Smith introduced a policy that suspended several controversial measures the previous board had implemented.
The suspended policies are related to athletics, banned texts, library books, and neutrality measures. According to Smith, the suspension allows the board to “work in committee, take our time, and work with all stakeholders.” She also said the Federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights must revisit policies they are investigating.
For a long time, the school district has discriminated against LGBTQ+ youth. They banned books and prohibited teachers from addressing students by their pronouns. The district also restricted a school from performing the musical ‘Rent’ because of its queer theme.
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The previous board hired a superintendent without experience that targeted trans students. The new board had plans to sack him, but he resigned four months after taking the job. The former board members said he was entitled to a $700,000 severance.
However, since the new board started shaking things up, they unanimously agreed to contest the severance package. Also, Smith promised that over 60 books the previous board wanted to remove from the library would remain on the shelves. However, she said she was uncertain about the fate of two LGBTQ+ books that officials had officially banned.
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