Central Bucks on the hook for at least $200K for discrimination investigation. Here's why
The Central Bucks School District will pay at least $200,000 toward the final legal bills for a controversial district investigation into allegations of discrimination against LGBTQ+ students, but the final cost of the investigation likely won't be known for months.
The amount represents the per-claim amount the district is required to pay its insurer, according to the district. The final litigation costs for the internal investigation will not be known until after the district receives its insurance reimbursement check.
The administration was in negotiations with the Philadelphia law firm Duane Morris LLP to reduce the bills, but the district’s Chief Operating Officer Tara Houser declined to say if the final amount was reduced.
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The law firm billed the district $1.22 million for legal services from Nov. 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023. The district has denied Right to Know requests seeking Duane Morris legal bills for April through July claiming it has no copies of those bills. It is unknown if or when Duane Morris plans to submit additional bills.
It is unclear exactly when Duane Morris completed its investigation, but school board members did not get a copy of the firm’s 157-page report until shortly before the April 20 special board meeting where the report findings were presented to the public. The report’s lead investigators, William McSwain, and Michael Rinaldi, also attended the two hour April 20 meeting.
Central Bucks submitted its first partial payment of $500,000 to Duane Morris on Aug. 1., Houser confirmed.
District officials have said little publicly about the cost of the Duane Morris investigation into the four complaints filed last year with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights alleging discrimination and retaliation among students who identify as LGBTQ+ and their supporters.
The district’s insurance carrier reportedly requested that the district not submit bills for reimbursement until Duane Morris submitted all its bills. The district is responsible for paying the legal bills, and then it submits the bills for insurance reimbursement.
The minimum $200,000 the district owes is based on its self-insured retention (SIR), which is a dollar amount specified in a liability insurance policy that must be paid before a policy will respond to a loss. For a non-monetary loss like the Duane Morris investigation the SIR is $50,000 per claim.
Once the SIR is paid, the bills flow through the insurer, which reviews each charge and decides which ones it will reimburse and issues a check for that amount. The district won’t know how much the policy will cover until it receives the reimbursement check.
Duane Morris was hired to investigate allegations in four OCR complaints filed last year including an October 2022 discrimination complaint the ACLU of Pennsylvania filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.
The complaint was filed on behalf of seven students who allege district policies and practices have subjected LGTBQ+ students and their supporters to a “hostile” educational environment.
The federal agency is actively investigating six complaints involving the Central Bucks School District. There is no timeline for when those investigations will be completed.
It is unclear what law firm is handling the other two OCR complaints.
The Republican-majority school board decision to investigate the veracity of the discrimination complaints and its choice of McSwain, a known conservative right political figure to lead it, has resulted in ongoing scrutiny and criticism.
The subsequent report and presentation has been heavily criticized by the LGBTQ+ community and supporters. The ACLU called the report a "political defense of the district's discriminatory practices, not an unbiased investigation."
The investigation, which did not interview any LGBTQ+ students or their families, concluded that there is no widespread problem with LGBTQ+ student discrimination and the administration addresses problems promptly and effectively.
The report also accused middle school teacher Andrew Burgess, who is suing the district for retaliation after he was suspended twice, a Democrat school board member and Democrat “activists” of conspiring against the Republican-majority school board to derail policies they disagree with and stoking community divisions.
Duane Morris was also involved in litigation in May after the district reportedly placed a “gag order” Burgess preventing him or his attorneys from commenting on the Duane Morris report allegations. Any legal bills related to the Burgess lawsuit would fall under separate claims from the OCR discrimination complaints for insurance reimbursement purposes.
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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Central Bucks to pay at least $200K in LGBTQ discrimination probe
