With staged actors from outside the Pennsbury School District in heavy attendance to intimidate public commenters in support of political agendas, the Progressive block of the School Board redirected their personal attacks away from those appearing at public comment to one of their own on December 19, 2024. This time, the focus of their ire was fellow Democrat board member Donna Aherns.
As reported here in recent weeks, Ahrens presented a moderate, center-left position regarding politicized symbols inside schools, specifically pointing out the Gay Pride Flag. At the November 21, 2024, meeting, Ahrens received thunderous applause from the audience, only to have Board President Joanne Steere bark at the attendees for silence for applauding a statement she personally disagreed with. What was so upsetting? Ahrens dared to present a middle-ground solution that was inclusive to all students while removing symbolism in the classroom that activists had hijacked.
You can view the exchange between the Board Members’ attack on Ahrens from its starting point in the YouTube video below:
The attacks began when Jeannine Delwiche requested an opportunity to make a prepared statement. After taking the floor, Delwiche defended her misconduct on the Policy Board for not proactively starting the process to remove elements referencing Diversity and Equity, which will become unlawful on January 20, 2025. While Delwiche attempted to lead the charge in recent months to proactively introduce policy changes addressing Title IX changes recently rescinded by the Biden Administration, she appears to have unilaterally decided that defiance to Trump’s expected efforts to eliminate DEI programs will not be afforded the same proactivity.
Delwiche then pivoted to her progressive rhetoric, claiming that the removal of Gay Pride symbols in classrooms is a violation of the First Amendment, despite similar actions happening nationwide without legal repercussions. Delwiche’s bold legal threats display a clear misunderstanding of the law, as any symbols that could disrupt educational operations are not protected under the First Amendment, as determined in Tinker v. Des Moines. In that 1969 case, the Supreme Court ruled that First Amendment rights are not absolute inside a school building if they infringe upon the rights of others attempting to obtain their education.
Delwiche then cited debunked academic research produced through government grants handed out by Democrats and veered down the path of how she will protect our kids blindly, despite being the only Board member without children, without concern for the legal consequences her prepared statement may have caused for Pennsbury taxpayers.
Next up, Mean Girl #2, unelected appointee and major Democratic campaign fundraiser Donna Petrecco, took the floor to bully Ahrens while sharing more debunked academic research. Petrecco opened by defining which types of students are “safe” at school and which are not, effectively determining at her discretion who is bad and who is good. Petrecco then gave a history lesson on the origins of the Gay Pride Flag but failed to address how the symbolism has changed in recent years to political activism. Petrecco took old research related to decades-old cultural diversity programs and attempted to apply this research to today’s weaponized DEI programming, which has been shown to create escalated hate and division among teenagers and young adults. The latest research studies from the University of Michigan and Rutgers University have provided insight into the harm this weaponization has caused our youngest minds.
Ahrens then responded to the bullying Mean Girls who had vowed to protect students from bullying by clarifying the mischaracterizations. Ahrens exposed the targeted hate she has received via email from a fellow Board Member, the spouse of another Board Member, and two local residents known as political activists. She then shared a range of feedback from residents supporting the removal of the Pride Flags due to their politicization in school buildings.
Linda Palsky then closed out the Mean Girls’ monologues with a meandering statement that was difficult to understand due to vocal issues she sustained from an argument with constituent Joanne Mastriani on election day in 2021. Palsky plodded forward with false assertions of her role as a Board Member and invented new responsibilities for herself as Committee Chair of the Facilities Committee.
Ahrens then again addressed the mischaracterizations made by the progressive Mean Girls. She shared her experiences of door-knocking and the feedback she received from her constituents before the meeting was adjourned.
Nothing like seeing the “No Place For Hate” folks discussing their allegiance to their progressive activism cause to stop bullying in our school by bullying their colleague for having a moderate Democrat’s viewpoint. Right To Know requests (RTKs) have been submitted to obtain the negative email communications sent to Donna Ahrens and will be revealed upon their receipt.