Central Bucks board president talks district policy, altercation with Dom Giordano

The president of the Central Bucks School Board made a rare media appearance last week on a Philadelphia conservative radio program.

Dom Giordano had Dana Hunter on his talk show the day after the Sept. 12 meeting to talk about an altercation that occurred during the public comment portion of the meeting, which has been widely circulated on social media with contrasting witness accounts.

Hunter also addressed the district’s controversial library materials policy.

The board incident occurred after a public speaker finished leveling accusations against a Democratic school board member and then passed the board member’s husband seated in the meeting room audience.

What witnesses say happened at meeting Altercation brings public comment at Central Bucks School Board meeting to a sudden halt

The witness accounts vary, but generally agree the public speaker allegedly tossed papers that struck the husband of the school board member. The man immediately stood up and picked up a chair beside him before two other people intervened and he lowered it.

Police officers stationed in the room immediately responded and escorted both men out of the room. Hunter called for at least a 10-minute meeting recess before resuming, though public comment was ended.

This newspaper is not identifying either man because no criminal charges have been filed. Both men have said they declined to file charges. The Doylestown Township police chief has not responded to requests for the department’s version of the incident.

On the Giordano show, Hunter, who is up for re-election in November, said that the husband of the school board member “got agitated” with comments the speaker directed at his wife.

“And he picked up a chair at our meeting and tried to hit this gentleman,” Hunter added.

No physical or visual evidence has surfaced, so far, showing a chair being thrown or swung at the speaker, despite reports circulated on social media by supporters of the current Republican majority board.

A cell phone video doesn't show the beginning of the altercation, but it shows the school board member’s husband picking up a chair as he stood up. The audio is unclear on any verbal exchange between the men before the man stood up.

The speaker, in an email to this news organization this week, said he tossed the papers into an empty chair next to the man and they hit his bicep. He also said the verbal exchange included him saying "Here you go buddy," while the man in the audience said the speaker said something obscene about his wife.

Hunter also talked in-depth with Giordano, who praised her district leadership, about the ongoing controversy over its Library Materials Policy, which prohibits explicit and inexplicit sexual content and nudity.  Critics of the policy call it censorship targeted at students who identify as LGBTQ+.

“At the end of the day, the policy dictates the criteria set forth in order to select books for the district which means that the gratuitous sexual content that is found in some of these books is not acceptable and our policy states that other books should be selected,” she said.

She also explained how the policy allows parents and community members to challenge books currently in the library that contain age-inappropriate “graphic” sexual content. If the book is found to violate the policy it is removed and replaced with something “age appropriate,” Hunter said.

The library policy specifies a replacement book must be of the same genre of the one removed.

More than 60 books have been challenged under the policy. Five book reviews have been completed including four containing LGBTQ+ themes or characters. Two books, “Gender Queer” and “This Book is Gay” were found to violate the policy and were removed earlier this year.

But Hunter pointed out that the remaining challenges “doesn’t mean they are necessarily going to meet the expectations of the policy,” which would require them to be removed and replaced.

“It’s a guideline for choosing content that is age appropriate for our schools,” Hunter said. “The idea that somehow this is a book ban it’s just utterly ridiculous.”

More on CBSD Library Materials policy Central Bucks committees wanted 'vital' LGBTQ+ themed books to remain at high schools

Giordano asked Hunter about the appropriateness of the Pulitzer Prize winning book, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which is widely read in American middle and high schools, but includes a rape scene.

If that book were challenged, the talk show host asked Hunter what she thought would happen.

“If it were in the elementary schools could it possibly meet the criteria? I would have to read the excerpts in order to determine, or decide, or give you an opinion about whether it meets the expectation,” she said. “It certainly would never meet the expectation for our high school, which is what that book is geared toward.”

Hunter added that the district’s policy protects books considered “classic” literature, which she would consider “To Kill A Mockingbird.”

“So how do you determine it’s a classic? “ Giordano said.

“I don’t make that determination,” Hunter replied. “The librarians in the district would make that determination.”

In response to a question from Giordano about whether it is necessary for students who identify as transgender and nonbinary to have what he called “pornographic books" in the school library, Hunter called the issue a “red herring.”

“This is what I would say to that. It is not necessary to have books that discuss transgenderism, bisexuality, any sort of alternative lifestyles,” she said. “You can have content in your libraries that discusses the journeys of all different types of people without books that contain graphic sexual content."

Hunter added: “I don’t want “Fifty Shades of Grey” in my library. It has nothing to do with the type of sex, it has to do with the fact that it is graphic sexual content that is not age-appropriate.”

Her appearance on Giordano’s show was unusual for Hunter, who rarely responds to requests for comment or answers questions about district issues from mainstream media outlets.

This news organization reached out to Hunter with follow up questions regarding her Giordano appearance including what her priorities for the district would be if she is re-elected.

Hunter answered only one question about why the district, and her specifically, generally do not respond to questions from the mainstream media, but she will speak with Giordano.

“I prefer to work with reporters and news agencies who value research, objectivity, integrity, and factual accounting as the basis of their reporting,” she wrote.

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: CB's Dana Hunter talk district controversies on Dom Giordano