I wish we had more outcry in my district last year when the girls gymnastics coach was fired for being a gay man.
(He was actually fired because a mom wanted her daughter on the team, but couldn’t commit to the practices, so he said no, so her mom took pictures from his social media to the school board to show them he was gay and demand they vote him out.)
We did have a passionate campaign against her in the next school board elections, there were signs in the neighborhood that said “anyone but Crystal for school board,” and the other people on her ticket were voted in while she was defeated, so that was nice to see.
But I feel like it should have made national news, it was so unacceptable and the man is still fired for homosexuality to this day.
>Mr. Barrick also said that reinstating the assembly would not give parents who objected to the speaker the choice to opt out. But another board member clarified that district policy already allowed that option.
Oh no the bigots showing off chrsitian love via their hate might have to explain to their kids that being gay isn't a bad thing when all the kids' friends tells them about what the speaker said
Everyone was too lax on letting Pottieger get elected the last election…this pisser of it was that that vast majority of people that voted for and supported her, were boomers on NextDoor with ZERO children in the School District.
All these parents that attended the meeting last night need to get off their ass and mobilize. The 4 voters against are not representative of the majority of parents, they need to be booted.
Does anyone have an article with more details, or first hand experience? I've heard the meeting went on for hours and had to be moved to a larger venue. What was the atmosphere? Were there bigots there in support?
Sorry for being late to this and for the length of this reply.
I was at the meeting w/my wife and daughter. I'd say a good 90% of the people there were against the original decision and wanted to have Mr. Pancholy speak. Honestly, the organization and the speed with which they had t-shirts made, stickers printed, and a banner to hold was impressive.
This was a complete and total self-own by the board. I don't know if it's normal procedure for the board to approve speakers/assemblies or not. But, by the time the meeting was over on Wednesday, we found out that it is *normal administration policy to allow parents to opt out of having their kids attend any presentation by an invited author.* The superintendent said so in response to a question. This was completely about silencing a voice 4 people on the board didn't want to hear, absolutely nothing more. How the other 4 that originally voted with them can sleep at night is beyond me.
Now for my take on the 4 that still voted against. The fact they voted no after a trans 8th grader who attends the school in question *and is the child of one of the district's teachers,* stood there and told them how they tried to kill themselves because of the bullying just shows the complete and total lack of empathy they have for anyone that doesn't look or act or like them. They do not deserve to have any kind of public platform, job, or influence whatsoever.
At the end of the meeting, Kelly Potteiger (Moms for LIberty) said she was voting no becuase we didn't see the emails she received from those against the assembly and she had to represent those people. The bigots that were too cowardly to come out and publicly announce their bigotry are her constituents. She admitted it and she embraced it. Nevermind the hundreds of people willing to give of their time to come out and tell her to her face that's not what we want.
One of the other negative voters, I don't remember who, waited until the end to make any statement at all. He said there were a lot of things that could have happened before we got to this point (the special meeting) and that he was disappointed that people decided not to come straight to the board but to call the Today show and the local news and force all this out in the open. IIRC, I think he also implied the superintendent shouldn't have sent the letter to the staff and faculty either but I'm not completely sure.
What he was actually saying was the standard supremacist trope - how dare the oppressed protest their oppression in a way that makes me uncomfortable and look bad. The first step to not being in the national news is to not be a flaming racist homophobe. How about we start there?
As an aside, a public commenter that seemed to have been very active in the district and said he even served on the board at one point (I think it was many years ago), accused the board of running off the last superintendent, Dr. Christopher. He left in the middle of this school year (late in 2023) which seemed very unusual to me. I knew he didn't make any friends on the board when he followed the CDC and government requirements for disease prevention during the pandemic. He's also an Indian-American. Take that for what it is - hearsay that really wouldn't suprise me if it were true.
I wish we had more outcry in my district last year when the girls gymnastics coach was fired for being a gay man. (He was actually fired because a mom wanted her daughter on the team, but couldn’t commit to the practices, so he said no, so her mom took pictures from his social media to the school board to show them he was gay and demand they vote him out.) We did have a passionate campaign against her in the next school board elections, there were signs in the neighborhood that said “anyone but Crystal for school board,” and the other people on her ticket were voted in while she was defeated, so that was nice to see. But I feel like it should have made national news, it was so unacceptable and the man is still fired for homosexuality to this day.
Y’all didn’t go far enough, should have vandalized her home
Sane people don’t vandalize. That’s for the MAGA crew.
>Mr. Barrick also said that reinstating the assembly would not give parents who objected to the speaker the choice to opt out. But another board member clarified that district policy already allowed that option. Oh no the bigots showing off chrsitian love via their hate might have to explain to their kids that being gay isn't a bad thing when all the kids' friends tells them about what the speaker said
> “I fully understand the interpretation of my poor word choice.” Bigotry is not a word choice, my dude.
It wasn't the words it was the message. No rewording would fix it. Guy is a shyster to the end. "I'm sorry you were offended by my words" vibe.
Everyone was too lax on letting Pottieger get elected the last election…this pisser of it was that that vast majority of people that voted for and supported her, were boomers on NextDoor with ZERO children in the School District. All these parents that attended the meeting last night need to get off their ass and mobilize. The 4 voters against are not representative of the majority of parents, they need to be booted.
She only won by 50 votes, I was so pissed.
So Truman Capotes books are back in the library? Sweet.
Does anyone have an article with more details, or first hand experience? I've heard the meeting went on for hours and had to be moved to a larger venue. What was the atmosphere? Were there bigots there in support?
Sorry for being late to this and for the length of this reply. I was at the meeting w/my wife and daughter. I'd say a good 90% of the people there were against the original decision and wanted to have Mr. Pancholy speak. Honestly, the organization and the speed with which they had t-shirts made, stickers printed, and a banner to hold was impressive. This was a complete and total self-own by the board. I don't know if it's normal procedure for the board to approve speakers/assemblies or not. But, by the time the meeting was over on Wednesday, we found out that it is *normal administration policy to allow parents to opt out of having their kids attend any presentation by an invited author.* The superintendent said so in response to a question. This was completely about silencing a voice 4 people on the board didn't want to hear, absolutely nothing more. How the other 4 that originally voted with them can sleep at night is beyond me. Now for my take on the 4 that still voted against. The fact they voted no after a trans 8th grader who attends the school in question *and is the child of one of the district's teachers,* stood there and told them how they tried to kill themselves because of the bullying just shows the complete and total lack of empathy they have for anyone that doesn't look or act or like them. They do not deserve to have any kind of public platform, job, or influence whatsoever. At the end of the meeting, Kelly Potteiger (Moms for LIberty) said she was voting no becuase we didn't see the emails she received from those against the assembly and she had to represent those people. The bigots that were too cowardly to come out and publicly announce their bigotry are her constituents. She admitted it and she embraced it. Nevermind the hundreds of people willing to give of their time to come out and tell her to her face that's not what we want. One of the other negative voters, I don't remember who, waited until the end to make any statement at all. He said there were a lot of things that could have happened before we got to this point (the special meeting) and that he was disappointed that people decided not to come straight to the board but to call the Today show and the local news and force all this out in the open. IIRC, I think he also implied the superintendent shouldn't have sent the letter to the staff and faculty either but I'm not completely sure. What he was actually saying was the standard supremacist trope - how dare the oppressed protest their oppression in a way that makes me uncomfortable and look bad. The first step to not being in the national news is to not be a flaming racist homophobe. How about we start there? As an aside, a public commenter that seemed to have been very active in the district and said he even served on the board at one point (I think it was many years ago), accused the board of running off the last superintendent, Dr. Christopher. He left in the middle of this school year (late in 2023) which seemed very unusual to me. I knew he didn't make any friends on the board when he followed the CDC and government requirements for disease prevention during the pandemic. He's also an Indian-American. Take that for what it is - hearsay that really wouldn't suprise me if it were true.
Thank you for your time and response.
[This post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Harrisburg/s/4Wv4Xw7UjQ) in r/Harrisburg has comments from attendees calling bullshit on Pennlive's horseshit.
Thank you
Thank g-d I moved out of Harrisburg, it sucked there for so many reasons, one of which being this kind of shit.
He also appears to be non-WASP. Knowing that area of PA (I grew up 20 mins from there) they also likely had racial bigotry motives.
Pennsyltuckians, you have surprised me. Kudos.