Bucks County Parents: Moms for Liberty Damaging Our Community, Students

Two parents from the Central Bucks and Pennridge school districts explained what happened after Moms for Liberty took over their school boards and how it impacted their communities. 

Parents from school districts in Bucks County shared their concerns about Moms for Liberty and the influence they have on their local school boards outside of the Moms for Liberty Conference. 

Following Florida, Pennsylvania has the second-highest number of Moms for Liberty members and over 20 chapters across the commonwealth. Bucks County has the highest membership in Pennsylvania. 

Kate Nazemi and Jane Cramer, parents who live in the Central Bucks and Pennridge school districts, joined other concerned citizens and activists at a banned book giveaway outside the Moms for Liberty Conference.   

“In our school district, we’re really seeing several different outside influencers impacting education policy for our kids, and we’re seeing teachers, many parents and students’ needs and wants being pushed aside in favor of partisan policies that don’t reflect the local needs of the community.” said Nazemi.

“We see that with Moms for Liberty,” she added. “We know they are leading the movement in book bans. Many of the books that are challenged right now in our district – there are 60 plus – the excerpts for those challenges come from the Book Looks website, which is originally a Moms for Liberty site that encourages folks to challenge books.”  

Over the past year, the Central Bucks School District and, for a longer time, Pennridge School District have experienced the effects of extremists sitting on their school boards. 

The Central Bucks School District has found themselves embroiled in controversy after pursuing book bans, banning pride flags and making it harder for students from the LGBTQ Community to express themselves. 

WHYY reported that the Central Bucks school board hired Independence Law Center, a conservative christian law firm associated with the PA Family Institute, who is sponsoring the Moms for Liberty Conference.

In response to the school board takeover in Central Bucks, Nazemi and a retired teacher from the district created a non-profit called Advocates for Inclusive Education. 

“Our job in our community is to educate people on the policies that are impacting our kids’ education and advocate for best practices in an inclusive education,” said Nazemi.

In an interview, Cramer talked about how students in Pennridge are losing their rights. 

“Right now in Pennridge, our students have lost a lot of their rights. It’s been a slow process, but the past few months, it’s really escalated,” she said. 

The Pennridge School District has found itself mired in controversy for the past few years. Joan Cullen, president of the school board, marched in DC on Jan 6th, 2021. Before the one-year anniversary of the insurrection, WHYY reported that Pennridge asked faculty and teachers to not discuss the events of Jan. 6th.

Recently, the school district hired Vermilion Education, a newly formed Florida based company with ties to the conservative christian Hillsdale College, to implement Hillsdale’s 1776 curriculum.   

When speaking about how Pennridge granted a contract to Vermilion, Cramer explained that, “The board hired [Jordan Adams], but they did it in a sneaky way. 48 hours before the board meeting five board members put the contract onto the agenda.” 

“So now our curriculum is basically going to get the Floridia treatment. Any type of diversity within our curriculum is going to be taken out. Our teachers are going to be micromanaged. Our teachers, administrators and principals are leaving. It’s very concerning” Cramer added.