DV Journal

Parent Fenicia Redman started to give the Great Valley School Board an earful about an assignment in her son’s 11th-grade honors history class–to interview an expert on abortion. But as she spoke, the board left the room rather than hear her or look at a poster showing the assignment.

As Redman continued to speak, a security guard came up to her asking her to stop.

“It’s been five months since this board has acknowledged that minors have access in the library to sexually-explicit material as defined by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Redman said. “Tonight, I have new disturbing information that the library and the 11th grade honors government team developed an abortion interview template.”

“The librarian and the 11th-grade honors team developed an abortion interview template,” said Redman. “This is from the teacher’s arsenal.”

Previously, Redman met with her son’s teacher and the assistant principal about the interview template, which lists links to Planned Parenthood and an abortion clinic in Chester County but not to right-to-life groups.

Redman told board members the librarian, who had developed the abortion template, also posted a tweet threatening U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett that was deleted after parents complained.

“To LGBTQ students, your parents love you,” said Redman at the end of her speech after the board left. Then she told heterosexual students, “Please extend kindness to your LGBTQ peers.”

Other parents spoke to the board about inappropriate books that they believe are pornographic in various school libraries.

Redman previously brought that issue to the attention of former Republican Congressman Lou Barletta, who was running for governor. Barletta later held a press conference on the topic.

After the abrupt recess, other parents talked about who the objective arbiter is for which books can stay and which must go. They also questioned why certain teachers try to force their worldview on students and said parents should be able to determine what material is acceptable for their children.

However, East Whiteland resident Christy Largent said she supports the controversial book “Gender Queer.” It is “a graphic biography of a young female who wants to be male but has to figure out how to incorporate her female body into that fantasy.”

“I found the memoir to be enlightening and a worthwhile read as it takes the reader through the author’s journey of self-acceptance,” Largent said. “Just because a book makes a person uncomfortable, it doesn’t make it harmful.”

Parents at several  Delaware Valley districts have objected to that book, including West Chester Area School District, Central Bucks, and Radnor.

Since many parents got a front-row seat to what their kids were learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, many are telling school boards that they don’t approve of various materials. Along with sexually graphic books, parents have objected to lessons in Critical Race Theory, which teaches students that Blacks are victims and Whites are oppressors.

A spokeswoman for the Great Valley School District did not respond to a request for comment.

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Seven members of the Great Valley School District could be driven from office if irate residents have their way.

The seven are named in a petition in the Chester County Court of Common Pleas last Thursday, filed by a local taxpayer angered over the district’s mandatory mask policy. The district was served Tuesday, said Kerry Puia, the lead plaintiff.

Puia, whose own children are grown, told the Delaware Valley Journal Tuesday that she is striking a blow for freedom. And, she believes, thousands of others share her sentiments.

“I got involved because of the fact that people’s freedoms were being taken away,” said Puia.  Puia noted that the two school board members not named in the recall petition were absent last July when the board voted to impose mask mandates.

“Basically, we started our own petition because of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling, which is cited in the petition, that what the governor and school boards were doing was unconstitutional.”

The school boards “are not listening to parents or taxpayers,” she said. The Paoli resident and others tried to talk with the board before taking this step, but nobody listened to them, she said.

“People are being completely shut out,” she said. “Their voices aren’t being heard…And so it’s gotten to this point.”

The board is “not allowing parents a choice,” she said. And even though the mask mandate is being lifted next week, the district could just as easily re-impose it.

“We’re the voice for thousands of people,” said Puia, who noted that people in some other districts, including West Chester and Downingtown, have also filed petitions to recall school board members.

The petition accuses GVSB members David Barratt, Rachel Gallegos, Wendy Litzke, Jennifer Armstrong, Stephen Dittmann, Samantha Jouin, and Neha Mehta of failing to perform their duties.

“The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled the order to force EUA (emergency use authorization) experimental medical devices to be worn by healthy children (masking) by the Secretary of Health was so illegal, it should have never occurred,” the petition said. “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the PA Commonwealth Court decision on December 10, 2021. The ruling has deemed the forced masking order by the Secretary of Health “void ab initio” and unenforceable.”

The petition further stated, “Municipal government agencies may not create new rules or regulations’ out of whole cloth’, only the Pennsylvania legislature has that authority.

“There is no state of emergency in Pennsylvania allowing for rules to be subverted, and the highest courts in our state ruled, twice, that the Pennsylvania Health Department may not force mask healthy children. ‘The Board’ has failed to follow proper procedure for exception requests to their illegal policies.”

A spokeswoman for the Great Valley School District did not respond to a request for comment.

The court has not set a hearing date for the petition.

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