The new school board President for Central Bucks, PA, Karen Smith, was seen using a stack of banned books instead of a Bible for her swearing-in ceremony. The election on Nov. 7 resulted in a 6-3 Democratic majority; before the election, Republicans held a 6-3 majority. Democrats have suspended the former board’s library policy, as well as the ban on staff advocacy
Interestingly, Smith is a former Republican, first elected in 2015. Smith switched parties in early 2021, after the board voted down sending a counselor to a training about transgender students.
“I thought, ‘I can’t be a part of these kind of actions,’” said Smith, who is retired as a school public relations professional but manages a farm in New Britain Township. “The Republican Party has lost its way.”
Ain't that the truth.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
As she was sworn in to another term on the Central Bucks school board Monday night, Karen Smith placed her hand not on a Bible, but a stack of frequently banned books.
Smith, who was chosen as the president of the new Democratic-led board Monday, wanted to make a symbolic gesture — setting a new tone after the former GOP-dominated board passed a policy prohibiting “sexualized content” that led to bans of two books and paved the way for challenges of 60 others.
Smith, like the other Democrats who were in the minority, had opposed that policy, which became one of the most contentious measures passed by the board in its tumultuous two years in power.
“I’m not particularly religious. The Bible doesn’t hold significant meaning for me, and given everything that has occurred in the last couple of years, the banned books, they do mean something to me at this point,” Smith said Tuesday. She wanted to make clear “the commitment I’ve had to fighting for the books, and for our students’ freedom to read.”
And what were the books she chose?
- Night, by Elie Wiesel
- The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
- Lily and Dunkin, by Donna Gephart
- All Boys Aren’t Blue, by George M. Johnson
- Flamer, by Mike Curato
- Beyond Magenta, by Susan Kuklin
