ACLU alleges 'toxic environment' at Central Bucks School District for LGBTQ+ students

The ACLU of Pennsylvania has requested the civil rights divisions of two federal agencies investigate the Central Bucks School District for what it said are policies and practices that have created and exacerbated “hostile” and “toxic” educational environment for its LGBTQ+ students and their supporters.

At a minimum, the ACLU wants the federal agencies to require the district to follow U.S. Department of Education recommended measures to support transgender and other gender-non-conforming students in its schools, according to a complaint filed Thursday with the offices of the U.S. Justice and Education departments.

The 72-page complaint filed on behalf of seven district students follows what the ACLU said was a five-month investigation into allegations that district officials ignored a widespread "toxic" culture at district schools targeting students who identify as LGBTQ+ or transgender.

The ACLU cited its allegations of gender discrimination and violation of the students’ rights under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments, according to the complaint.

“These children deserve a safe environment where they can learn and be their full selves without fear of being bullied by other students,” said Witold Walczak, the ACLU Pennsylvania legal director.

Among the remedies the complaint seeks are federal orders that the district implement mandatory training for staff, administration, and the school board on supporting LGBTQ+ youth, and order CBSD to rescind its discriminatory policies and directives.

The ACLU said its lawyers interviewed dozens of students, family members, current and former teachers and other school staff, and community stakeholders, who detailed how LGBTQ+ students have faced worsening treatment following "homophobic and transphobic actions" taken by the school board and upper-level administrators.

“Unfortunately, rather than combat the toxic educational environment faced by LGBTQ+ students in Central Bucks, a new school board majority and the administration have exacerbated the problems with new homophobic and transphobic policies that have heightened the climate of fear for this group of students and supportive staff," Walczak said.

The ACLU is not publicly releasing the student names and details of the discrimination they have faced, citing their age and the "sensitive nature" of the allegations. The complaint also does not identify students or district staff members who have supported these students.

But their allegations share a common theme of persistent and often severe bullying by peers based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, said Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. He also alleges that when students reached out to "key administrators and staff" for help, they were ignored.

"This is no way to educate and treat children. It’s immoral, unethical, and illegal," Shuford said.

In a statement, a district spokesperson said the district was reviewing the complaint but would not comment on legal matters.

"We believe It is paramount that all students and teachers are cared for and respected as members of our learning and teaching community," Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh said in the statement.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania alleges that Central Bucks — with 18,000 students, the fourth-largest in the state — has perpetuated a “toxic educational environment” over the last year and that its actions have exacerbated hostilities toward staff and students who support LGBTQ+ and transgender students.

The ACLU said discriminatory actions by the school board and upper-level administration targeting LGBTQ+ students and their allies have been ongoing since April.

Among the district actions the complaint identifies:

• In March, the district severed long ties with CB Cares, a local education foundation that allowed teachers to provide LGBTQ+ resources through its grantmaking. The complaint alleges the district ended the relationship after a small group of community members, “affiliated with right-wing parent groups,” opposed a grant sought for an LGBTQ+ library.

• Abruptly ended the district’s relationship with the Gender and Sexuality Clinic at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, which provided school counselors with training on how to support transgender youth. District officials blamed the cancellation of a planning training in May on a professional employees’ union request regarding equal lunch breaks for staff on professional development workdays.

• The school board’s “mockery” of a trans-inclusive workshop for teachers and its rejection of effort to expand staff training regarding support of LGBTQ+ and non gender conforming students.

• Disciplining guidance counselors and teachers who took steps to address allegations of bullying or spoke out publicly in support of LGBTQ+ and transgender students and against transphobic policies.

• Recently directed teachers in some schools to use student name and pronouns based on their birth-assigned sex unless the student’s parent say otherwise. The district also has directed teachers to notify guidance counselors if a student wants to be called a different name or pronoun, so parents can be notified.

• Banning Pride flags and other symbols of the LGBTQ+ community in classrooms, and issuing a public statement calling them “a flashpoint for controversy and divisiveness” and a “symbol for taking sides.”

• Its recent enactment of new library and curriculum policies designed to remove LGBTQ-themed books and learning resources.

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The ACLU also noted the school board is considering a new policy to be discussed at its Tuesday meeting that would prevent staff from displaying Pride flags and other symbols of support for LGBTQ+ students.

As recently as Sept. 14, the complaint noted, the Board Policy Committee also proposed a revised policy that characterizes discussion of “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” as “political” and “taking sides,” according to the complaint.

The ACLU's investigation found discrimination of these students in many of the district’s 23 schools, though problems varied by school and often depended on whether the building principal was supportive of the LGBTQ+ community, according to the complaint.

The students' stories varied in how they experienced overt gender-based discrimination, but the common thread is that district leadership has been “at best deliberately indifferent to severe and pervasive harassment and at worst outright hostile to this protected class of students,” the complaint said.

“Several more LGBTQ+ students and their parents shared similar stories, but elected not to join this action for fear of retaliation by CBSD officials. And the situation has grown worse in the past several months,” according to the complaint.

The complaint also alleges that some district staff members declined to speak with ACLU-PA attorneys, or agreed to speak if promised anonymity, again out of fear of retaliation from the school board or central administration.

“In some instances principals told staff that they would refuse to honor homophobic directives or policies issued by central administration, or they took steps to minimize the action. But at other schools, the principals regularly compound the problems for LGBTQ+ students,” the complaint said.

The ACLU further alleges that the district has refused pleas from students, parents and staff to provide districtwide training on how to support LGBTQ+ and transgender students, enact polices to prevent discrimination or address widespread and acknowledged harassment and bullying of LGTBQ+ and transgender students.

Instead, the upper level administration and the elected school board have enacted “blatant” discriminatory practices targeting LGBTQ+ students, made homophobic and transphobic statements, and retaliated against staff who disagreed with its policies.

“While many parents have attempted to address their difficulties with appropriate school officials, the allegations that Central Bucks School District has maintained, and more recently exacerbated, a hostile environment for LGBTQ+ and gender nonconforming students.”

The complaint alleges that near the end of the 2021-22 school year, several transgender students claimed that they were afraid to eat lunch in the cafeteria — a place where the taunts and problems regularly occur — and instead would eat in classrooms of supportive teachers or the main office.

One student had been eating lunch in the bathroom to avoid bullying, until staff caught them and ordered them to a remote hallway location, according to the complaint.

The complaint also alleges that the district has experienced “multiple serious incidents of student self-harm including a transgender student who attempted suicide in school in 2019.”

The ACLU accuses Lucabaugh and school board President Dana Hunter of attempting to “intimidate and silence opposition” to the district efforts to suppress support for  LGBTQ+ and transgender communities.

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The complaint cited Lenape Middle School teacher Andrew Burgess, who was suspended with pay and escorted off campus during school hours earlier this year allegedly for helping a transgender student file an complaint with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights.

The complaint alleges Burgess, who is not identified in the complaint but who has been identified publicly, was suspended the day he was scheduled to speak with the OCR regarding the complaint that he filed on behalf of the student. The ACLU alleges the child’s parents had complained multiple times about bullying and harassment to district administrators but no action was taken.

“To date CBSD has not identified any policy or protocol that (Burgess) failed to follow,” the complaint said. “Despite the primary stated reason for the suspension being failure to report bullying, nobody from CBSD administration has reached out to (the student) or his family regarding a plan to rectify bullying conditions.”

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: ACLU alleges CBSD of discriminating against LGBTQ students