A new policy banning educators from “advocacy activities” in the Central Bucks School District is already causing confusion and frustration over what that could entail.
Central Bucks South High School librarian Matt Pecic said on Wednesday a principal told him to take down four posters with a quote from Elie Wiesel, a world-renowned Holocaust survivor and author. According to Pecic, the principal said the poster violated the new policy.
The quote is from Wiesel’s 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech: “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Pecic, who has worked in the district for 31 years, was told the posters had to go, or Human Resources would be contacted. Pecic said it was his understanding there would be “consequences” if not followed.
So Pecic removed the posters, telling WHYY News he felt “powerless.”
“If I didn’t take it down, I knew there would be consequences that could impact me,” he said.
“It’s a horrible feeling. And you feel like you have to do something that you don’t agree with,” Pecic added.
Pecic’s ninth grade daughter, a Central Bucks student at Holicong Middle School, originally emailed him the quote.
“This is where I get choked up … She said that ‘this quote reminds me of you,’” Pecic said. He describes himself as someone who often speaks up, “if I disagree with something, especially if I think it’s not for the benefit of students, I will say something.”
The principal reversed the decision to remove the posters Thursday, following social media uproar.
Pecic told WHYY News that he planned to hang the posters back up.
It’s the latest directive connected to the contentious policy passed by the Central Bucks School board on Jan. 11, which teachers, students, and parents have been protesting against ever since.
The policy is part of a federal investigation of the school district, after the ACLU listed Central Bucks in its federal complaint alleging the district is creating a hostile learning environment for LGBTQ students.
The district’s outside public relations firm, Devine and Partners, released a statement alleging the librarian was “asked by the administration to present the quote in conjunction with Mr. Wiesel’s book in order to promote educational inquiry and student interest in reading the novel, or to take it down. We regret that the decision was made to remove it.”
“The district apologizes for any hurt or concerns this has caused, particularly for those in the Jewish community,” the statement reads.
Anti-Defamation League Philadelphia Regional Director, Andrew Goretsky, said while the organization is relieved the posters are returning, the directive was still “deeply disappointing.”
“This is exactly the type of censorship we feared would be the consequence of an overbroad and harmful policy,” Goretsky said.
Goretsky said the decision was “unfortunately ill-timed,” as it came two days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, “and risks exacerbating the chilling effect that policies like these will have on speech in K-12 schools, stifling student learning and growth in the process.”
The directive follows news about the district using Harrisburg based law-firm Independence Law Center to review details of its library book policy, which allows any parent or district resident to raise questions about any book for it’s “sexualized content”
The Independence Law Center is the legal arm of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, the statewide branch of the national organization Family Research Council, an anti-LGBTQ Christian nationalist group designated as an extremist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
