A Souderton school board member posted a lewd comment about VP Harris. Calls for his resignation have been met with ‘complete silence or crickets’

From Delco to Chesco and Montco to Bucks, what about life in Philly’s suburbs do you want WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

Calls for Souderton Area School Board member Bill Formica’s resignation grew louder at a board meeting Thursday night.

Despite community members’ request for a larger venue, more than 50 residents were left standing outside the meeting room at the district’s administrative offices, which had a maximum capacity of 110. School police officers checked IDs of those who entered the auditorium to verify they were residents in the school districts — a move resident John Waldenberger objected to during the meeting and said was in violation of Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act.

Mary Jo Afflerbach, a parent and employee in the district, was among the dozens who stayed in line even after the meeting started and doors closed.

“I don’t know if they thought we were all going to just go away, but I think they should have moved [the meeting],” she said. “And I think this is a testament to that people are concerned and all feel the same way. Our motto is character counts, and that man’s character is questionable at best. So I feel like he needs to resign.”

In early August, Formica posted on X that Vice President Kamala Harris “blew a lot of dudes” in response to a post discussing Harris’ political achievements.

That post unleashed public outrage and prompted an online petition demanding  Formica’s resignation. On Aug. 29, more than 500 people attended the board meeting at Indian Valley Middle School. Community members criticized Formica’s apology letter and rejected his public statement that night, saying the post about Harris reflected a “pattern of bigotry and hatred” on Formica’s now-deleted X profile.

On Thursday night, residents distributed water, snacks and “cricket” clickers to those stranded outside. The cricket sound, said Souderton resident Richard Detwiler, symbolized the “multiple asks [that] have been made of the board to respond to this controversy, and they have all been met with complete silence or crickets.”

School Superintendent Frank Gallagher and Board President Ken Keith said Formica’s post does not represent the district’s views, but the board has not released an official statement on the issue.

“At this point, my concern is that the other members of the board haven’t done anything to kind of show that they don’t agree with his statements,” said Kristin Emmons, whose children are in second and fifth grades in the district. “And we’ve all seen that you can’t lose your job by saying whatever you want, so the fact that the other school board members are not discouraging him or asking him to resign, or asking him to submit a real apology, is assuming that the entire board is aligned with the way that he thinks and talks and behaves.”

Kaitlin Derstine, a conservative activist who organized a counter-protest at the Aug. 29 meeting, said the calls for Formica to resign are “taking away from the business of the district.”

“I think if they claim to uphold democracy, that they should be focused on elections and not trying to unseat someone,” she said. “Because he said something that was offensive, and he took down the comment, he apologized, he took down all of his social media. I don’t know what more a person can do. We all make mistakes, and in my view, character is acknowledging when you’ve made a mistake.”

Rick Sacks, a resident of Upper Salford whose three children graduated from the district, spoke during the public comment portion on Thursday supporting Formica.

“The overall aspect of the First Amendment, to me, is the ability to let people speak,” he said. “I know at the last meeting, one of the problems that we saw was the people in opposition would not let the other side speak. They were rude. They were trying to shout them down. And when they’re the ones saying the character counts, I think that was an extremely bad example of it.

Formica won the Republican primary in May 2023 for the school board seat vacated by Rep. Donna Scheuren when she was elected to the Pa. state House. Some community members contend the board lacked transparency and didn’t interview other candidates when it appointed Formica in June 2023. Formica retained the seat in last November’s general election.

The next election for the Souderton Area School Board will be held in November 2025, although Formica will not be up for re-election until 2027. Formica will remain on the board for his four-year term, which started in 2023, unless he chooses to resign. The school board and the district lack the authority to remove a member except under very rare circumstances, none of which apply to Formica.