Calm No Longer the Norm at School Board Meetings

Solicitors, board members, and an advocate discuss dealing with conspiracy theories, culture clashes, and political division

By Joan E. London, Esquire and Brian J. Boland, Esquire

The Municipal, Education, Real Estate and Environmental Law Section had the privilege of presenting a session at the Bench-Bar Conference on school board practice. Months earlier, as plans were underway for the Conference, the Section decided that the cultural, political, and governance developments of the prior three years would lend themselves to a thoughtprovoking panel discussion. We were not disappointed.

School boards had for years been fairly calm, with meetings marked by routine questions on hiring of professional and support staff and meeting needs for facilities to accommodate shifts in population. Since 2020, and the COVID-19 shutdown of the schools and shift to virtual learning for almost two years, public schools and school boards became one of the key battlegrounds over cultural debates and political values. Discussions of policies, curriculum, library books, and use of bathroom and locker room facilities, fueled by social media and the prevalence of national and regional organizations, have been happening with more frequency, and are only becoming more heated.

For our session titled “The School Board: Curriculum, Books, and Culture,” I assembled an ideologically balanced panel of attorneys who are involved in school law in different capacities. The local panelists were Brian F. Boland, John J. Miravich, and Dawn Palange. The panel also included Jeremy Samek, an attorney with Independence Law Center in Harrisburg, who regularly represents clients in matters involving school policy. We had invited a litigator from ACLU-PA, who accepted our invitation, but he unfortunately was unable to participate due to illness. We started the discussion with some real-world scenarios:

Imagine it's 2020-2021. You’re a parent who works outside the home. The schools are on indefinite remote learning, and child care is cost-prohibitive if you can find it. The school board is gathered pre-meeting, not realizing that the virtual meeting link is on, and the members are speaking freely. The head of a teacher’s union is heard disparaging parents with: “They just want their babysitters back” and the school board members are laughing along with it.

OR

You’re a parent of a child with a chronic health condition. The angry residents at the meeting are making it clear they want schools open NOW – and no masks – because COVID doesn’t badly affect healthy children and adults. You ask the question: “Is my child disposable?”

OR

Rumors have spread of library books or books used for assignments which allegedly contain graphic sexual depictions, racial epithets, and/or characters questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity. There are questions raised of age or even school appropriateness. Parents are alleging “grooming,” “teaching critical race theory,” “transphobia,” and/or “censorship.”

These hypothetical situations are quite real, and they’re happening in many communities, including ours. Even with the pandemic entering our rearview mirror, the controversies haven’t ended. Curriculum, classroom discussions, and library books have become flashpoints in a larger discussion of parents’ rights, academic freedom, and the shaping of our culture.

Continued on next page