As January 20, 2025, approaches, significant changes are anticipated from the Federal Government and the Department of Education. Notably, it is expected that the Biden Administration’s Executive Order, which sought to legislate Title IX from the Oval Office, will be rescinded. Additionally, Congress is proceeding forward with the Dismantle DEI Act in the House of Representatives, which is slated for a vote early next year. This bill stipulates that any organization or government entity implementing DEI practices will forfeit all federal funding. For Pennsbury, this could mean losing an estimated $3.4 million if they do not shut down the DEI program officially established in July 2020.

How Did Pennsbury Get Themselves Into This Predicament?

For years, the Pennsbury School District has been embroiled in complaints and lawsuits related to discrimination based on sexual orientation and race, issues that existed before and have persisted despite the launch of the DEI program. These lawsuits have been documented by LevittownNow.com concerning EEOC complaints and by the Bucks County Courier Times concerning an Mixed Race LGBTQ student. You can read the detailed stories at the following links:

LGBTQ Lawsuit: https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/news/local/2023/05/11/pennsbury-school-district-target-of-discrimination-lawsuit-by-student/70205749007

Dorsey and Morrett EEOC Lawsuits: https://levittownnow.com/2020/02/18/two-former-admins-file-lawsuits-against-pennsbury-claim-discrimination/

Shaffer EEOC Lawsuit: https://levittownnow.com/2020/07/15/third-former-pennsbury-administrator-sues-district/

At the onset of the DEI program, the district had approximately 2.3% of its employees as people of color, despite the student demographic being 24% people of color. Additionally, the Pennsylvania Department of Education issued Disproportionality warnings to Pennsbury due to the overrepresentation of African American students in Special Education programs. The district publicly expressed concerns about what it perceived as an unbalanced level of punishment for students of color, particularly regarding detentions and suspensions.

The Cherrissa Gibson Dissertation

Pennsbury administrator Dr. Cherrissa Gibson embarked on her doctoral studies after being hired as an Assistant Principal at Pennsbury in 2013. In July 2020, Gibson was promoted to the newly created role of Director of Equity, Diversity, and Education, shortly after earning her doctoral degree in K-12 school leadership from Gwynedd-Mercy University. Her dissertation, titled “Social Emotional Learning Through A Cultural Lens,” was approved and accepted. A copy of the dissertation can be reviewed below:

After a protracted Right-to-Know (RTK) battle, which included an appeal to the Open Records Office to compel Pennsbury to release the requested records, it was confirmed that the data set used in the dissertation originated from Pennsbury. The Open Records Office, in its final determination, ordered the district to recreate the dataset they claimed was destroyed. Keep in mind, the Pennsbury School District wasted thousands of taxpayer dollars in an aggressive but fail effort to not hand over anonymized data.

Referring back to the dissertation, readers should examine PDF page 75 (printed page 63) of the research study. It is noted that in the study’s construct, Dr. Gibson excluded 13% of Pennsbury’s student discipline and lunch program data. The reason for the deletion was that Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Mixed Race individuals were not considered “historically marginalized” minorities. This omission significantly altered the findings in her dissertation, which subsequently became the foundation of Pennsbury’s current Equity Policy.

Upon receiving the data, Pennsbury resident Tim Daly conducted a similar assessment, including all of the student data. His results significantly differed from Gibson’s dissertation. Daly’s analysis indicated that Pennsbury’s discipline issues were more related to socioeconomic status than race. Interestingly, the data revealed that a poor White student was more likely to receive a disciplinary referral than an affluent African American student. It also showed that Mixed Race students were punished significantly more than other Ethnicity groups. Based on US Census data from 2020, 88% of Mixed Race kids have one parent that is White Caucasian.