H eadlines
Central Bucks Leaders Condemn Antisemitism
L OCA L
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
THE JEWISH PARENTS in
Central Bucks concerned about
antisemitism got what they
wanted on Dec. 6 at the school
district’s reorganization board
meeting. Four board members,
President Dana Hunter, Karen
Smith, Tabitha Dell’Angelo
and Mariam Mahmud, made
statements condemning antise-
mitic remarks made at the
November meeting. Central
Bucks Superintendent Abram
Lucabaugh did the same.

At the board’s prior meeting,
a Doylestown man named
Art Larson spoke during the
public comment period and
compared Jews to the Mafia,
said the Anti-Defamation
League had Mafia ties and that
former Israel Prime Minister
Menachem Begin called Jews “a
master race,” a quote that is not
corroborated. In the days after
Larson spoke, four CB school
board members at the time,
Smith, Jodi Schwartz, Lorraine
Sciuto-Ballasy and Tracy Suits,
sent out a statement to the
community condemning the
comments. But a group of at least 50
Jewish parents in the district
wanted the other board
members to join them.

The Dec. 6 meeting was to
swear in new board represen-
tatives. One holdover from the
previous board, Hunter, joined
her former colleagues, three
of whom are no longer on the
board, in making statements
against hate. Dell’Angelo and
Mahmud are newly elected
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8 DECEMBER 9, 2021
members. Jewish parents wanted the
board and school leadership
to come out against antisem-
itism because they believed it
would curb what they saw as a
district culture that permitted
hate. Board member Leigh
Vlasblom, in particular, was
criticized for making exagger-
ated comparisons between
COVID restrictions and
Nazi discrimination and for
saying that the district needed
to reconsider how it decided
whether to give off on Jewish
and other religious holidays.

Another speaker at the last
meeting, a Jewish Buckingham
resident named Ed Mackouse,
made comments against
allowing transgender women
to use the women’s bathroom.

But the meeting offered an
indication that Vlasblom and
the district wanted to move
forward. “I do not condone comments
which target students, staff
members, communit y
members or board members
due to their race, color, religion,
gender, gender expression, age,
national origin, disability,
marital status, sexual orienta-
tion or military status,” Smith
said to the assembled crowd of
about 70 people in Doylestown.

“The previous sentence is
essentially the federal non-dis-
crimination statement.”
The crowd applauded after
the rest of Smith’s statement,
which she ended by saying, “I
stand with you,” to students
who don’t feel safe. Public
comments followed, and many
concerned Jewish parents and
students spoke during the
two-hour session.

They said they were happy
that district leadership spoke
out against hate speech. But
they also said it took too long.

Jewish Central Bucks East
High School student Lily
Freeman spoke first with
her parents behind her at
JEWISH EXPONENT
Some Central Bucks residents stood outside during the school board
meeting on Dec. 6. There weren’t enough seats in the administration
building’s meeting room, but residents still wanted to make statements.

Photo by Jarrad Saffren
the podium.

“The fact that it took the
board this long to make a state-
ment about the violent nature
of these words is telling me and
other students that we are not
safe in this district,” she said.

“Adults are supposed to be our
role models.”
Later, Plumstead Township
mom Dawn Haaz, who is
also Jewish, talked about how
excited her first-grade son was
to share his Chanukah knowl-
edge with his non-Jewish
classmates. “I grapple with a sense of
fear,” Haaz said. “As I know it
is only a matter of time that his
innocence will be shattered by
the realities of antisemitism.”
The new board voted to
limit public comment to two
hours due to the number of
people at the packed meeting.

Many more residents, Jews
and non-Jews, lined up outside
beforehand but didn’t get in
due to limited seating.

Several parents and students
asked for a change of venue
to Central Bucks West High
School to accommodate the
crowd, but board members
chose to keep the meeting at
its usual location of the CB
administration building on
Welden Drive.

Despite limiting the public
comment period, though,
the board allowed every
speaker their three minutes.

Commenters had to sign up
beforehand. Larson
attended the
meeting and listened to many
speakers criticize his previous
comments. But he did not
get a chance to go up to the
podium himself. However, at
the board’s next meeting, the
public comment list will pick
up where it left off.

Many speakers, Jews and
non-Jews, defended Larson’s
right to speak but not his
comments. They implored the
board to not allow a condemna-
tion of hate speech to go too far
and limit the First Amendment
right to free speech.

“These are inalienable rights.

You have no authority to inter-
rupt or interfere with them,”
said Mara Witsen, a Jewish
student in the district. “As a
community, those of us with
common sense and decency
must stand against those who
wish to rid our nation of the
right to free speech.” l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM