Some residents were disturbed after the district shared a conflicting statement through Devine + Partners alleging the high school librarian had a choice.
“The librarian was asked by the administration to present the quote in conjunction with Mr. Wiesel’s book in order to promote educational inquiry and student interest in reading the novel, or to take it down. We regret that the decision was made to remove it…” the statement said.
District leaders also shared conflicting messages about the policy.
In January, the Republican board members wrote in a Philadelphia Inquirer opinion piece that the policy would ban Pride flags because they want to teach students “how to think, not what to think.” But in a message to the community, board president Dana Hunter wrote that the policy does not ban Pride flags. “Instead, it simply limits their use to when it is related to the day’s curricular lessons,” Hunter wrote.
Central Bucks student Zandi Hall, 17, created a petition opposing the district’s choice to hire the PR firm as well as attorney Bill McSwain for $940 an hour to investigate the ACLU’s complaint. Entitled “CB Taxpayers Against Wasteful Spending,” the petition had over 900 signatures as of Saturday afternoon.
“The statement that they sent out yesterday blaming the community for Devine + Partners leaving and not themselves just proves that they can’t take any accountability for their actions,” Hall said. “The only reason they had the PR firm to begin with was so they could continue their anti-LGBTQ+ policies. And the PR firm was helping them spin that… It’s a good thing that the PR firm is gone.”
Tabitha Dell’Angelo is one of the three Democratic board members who opposed hiring the firm. “I’ve not been supportive of spending this money on helping to weave a narrative that everything’s going well instead of actually maybe spending that money on programs and supports to make a real change,” Dell’Angelo told WHYY News.
Bill Wohl, a consultant in crisis communications who lives in Chester County, said in his 20 years working in the business, “it’s highly unusual” for a district to hire an external PR firm.
He said from the outside looking in, it’s clear the Central Bucks situation “is highly toxic.”
“There’s a point at which it no longer makes sense to be a counselor to a client,” Wohl said. “That being said, there’s no secrets about what’s been going on at Central Bucks for the last year… If you step into a cause related situation as a business owner, you have to take a gut check and say, ‘Can I support? Do I even want to be involved in this?’”