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The Intelligencer: Bucks NAACP, ADL Philadelphia condemn Pennridge’s halt in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts

  • August 31, 2021

By Ashley R. Williams

In the wake of a recent school board decision to halt the district’s diversity, equity and inclusion-related efforts, anyone searching the Pennridge School District’s website for DEI information will come up short.

The board voted 6-1 at its August meeting to pause administration-led DEI initiatives, and related materials have since been hidden from Pennridge’s website.

Now, the webpage that once housed the school district’s DEI mission statement and district goals is mostly blank, requiring a username and password to login. School district-controlled DEI content has been temporarily pulled from the website for review.

Since the vote, Bucks County NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League Philadelphia have publicly condemned the decision.

Pennridge is one of several school districts locally and nationwide wading through the ongoing confusion and debate surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory.

The two concepts are often discussed and debated interchangeably. Parents in Pennsbury and Council Rock have accused school districts of pushing a CRT agenda under the guise of DEI activities.

However, their goals differ, and Bucks school administrators have remained firm about the fact that CRT isn’t being taught to their students.

In Pennsbury, where community members have passionately spoken out against CRT curriculum, which has never been proposed in the district, educational equity is defined as “the practice of distributing resources, access and opportunity based on fairness and justice regardless of race, ethnicity, color, age, religion, gender….”

CRT is an analytical framework that examines the history of race in America and is usually associated with studying law in higher education. And most districts have looked to address equality issues in their schools, none have proposed CRT curriculum.

On Aug. 23, Pennridge school board’s Vice President Joan Cullen made the suggestion to pause Pennridge’s current DEI activities after President William Krause mentioned early in the meeting plans to form a new, ad hoc committee.

Its goal would be to review and recommend programs that further support the school district’s mission statement and commitment to all of its children, Krause said as he opened the meeting.

“The members who participated in the DEI committee over the past year (have) worked hard, and their commitment to bring different voices into the discussion has been helpful,” Krause said.

“However, through no fault of those members, it has become increasingly clear to me that we have made some missteps, and as a result, there’s been community confusion and lack of bias,” he said.

Those issues were a result of the board’s failure to provide the right level of initial guidance in order to fulfill the district’s mission statement, he said, adding that the ad hoc committee would help address the problems.

The 7,200-student school district first formed its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team of administrators in January 2020 after examining the school district’s DEI-related areas of improvement the previous two school years.

The school district’s DEI guidebook, still searchable online, opens with the statement: “Our vision is to build a collaborative and sustainable inclusive culture that encourages, supports, and celebrates the diverse voices of our community to prepare students for the future in a diverse world.”

Several parents and students spoke in support of diversity, equity and inclusion at the board meeting, saying that the vote to stop its DEI work shifted away from that mission statement.

Community members also spoke out against the “whitewashing” of the curriculum, as a few parents put it, after reading materials from authors Ibi Zoboi and Kim Johnson — two Black women — were removed.

Members of a Facebook group called Pennridge for Educational Liberty shared online that their concerns helped lead to the change in 9th grade English curriculum.

One of the group members posted an email from Superintendent David Bolton Bolton stating that Pennridge’s supervisor of reading, English and language arts worked with a team of teachers to consider their feedback.

The email, shared via Twitter, shows Zoboi’s “American Street” and Johnson’s “This Is My America” were removed from the instructional resources list for one unit and replaced by other titles.

Other changes include a change of title for one unit, previously called Dreams and Oppressions to Dreams and Challenges.

“By removing DEI from the curriculum, you will remove important lessons that your students deserve,” said a Pennridge High School junior during public comments. “By removing lessons, you remove the truth, and I deserve the truth.”

“Honestly, are we thinking that our kids are not capable of handling tough questions and tough topics?” asked Mike McGowan, a Perkasie Borough resident.

During Pennridge’s Aug. 2 curriculum meeting, Cullen said there was a “lack of balance, transparency, and involvement of community” on its DEI efforts.

“Since you’re doing a steering committee, I think the appropriate thing to do would be to take a halt with the the DEI activities that we are currently doing,” she said on Aug. 23.

“If we’re really going to have a steering committee that’s going to be an honest effort to incorporate everybody, all of our stakeholders, include everyone and do a thorough examination of what our community needs specifically, and what we’re going to do to address diversity, I think that you need to stop what we’re doing, and do that restart,” Cullen said.

“I just feel like this is for optics,” said board member Lisa Walters as the board prepared to vote. Walters was the sole board member who voted against pausing DEI work in Pennridge.

“The administration has made a recommendation, they have taken necessary steps and this just, to me, feels like a show to appease a portion of the community, and it’s not going to do anything to unify, or help us build, or work together,” Walters said to applause from the audience.

Cullen and Krause, along with Megan Banis-Clemens, Robert Cormack, Ronald Wurz and David Reiss voted in support of the motion.

Following the vote, ADL Philadelphia’s regional director, Shira J. Goodman, called upon the Pennridge School Board “to immediately and in good faith” resume the district’s DEI efforts.

“By restricting efforts to better understand and confront systemic discrimination in the school district and beyond, the board is abrogating its responsibility to serve all students,” Goodman said in a statement. “This decision is illogical, unethical and deeply harmful.”

Goodman denounced Cullen’s partial oversight of the replacement ad hoc committee, referencing past comments on social media in which the vice president claimed “there’s…no systematic (sic) sexism, homophobia, etc.”

Bucks County NAACP has spoken out against Pennridge’s vote, sharing a statement that also took aim at Cullen.

“Her appointment is a slap in the face to children of color who attend Pennridge schools and their taxpaying parents, who deserve an inclusive school that celebrates and encourages all children,” said president Karen Downer.

“Schools throughout the Pennridge district are already pulling all references to diversity from their websites, their classrooms and their curricula,” the press release stated. “It is clear that, right now, only white children are welcome in Pennridge,” Downer’s comment continued.

On Friday, Pennridge School District posted a statement of its own on Facebook explaining the purpose of the ad hoc committee that will replace the DEI committee.

The statement from Krause and Reiss said: “The Ad Hoc DEI Committee will better coordinate and focus the District’s DEI efforts by drawing in additional voices from both the Board and the community to develop more community trust and buy-in.”

The new committee will take over the duties of the previous committee. The pause of DEI activities is temporary, the Facebook post read.

Pennridge plans to announce the committee’s members and its initial steps in early September.