Wednesday Aug 30, 2023
The Signal | Fighting for Students’ and Teachers’ Rights in Central Bucks School District, with ACLU’s Witold Walczak

Central Bucks is under fire for allegedly creating a toxic environment for LGBTQ+ students, vindictively targeting a teacher, and spending more than $1 million for reputation laundering.
Witold Walczak is legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. Today I speak with him about the ACLU’s ongoing legal battles with Central Bucks School District, its latest complaint filed in court which charges the Republican-run district with illegally retaliating against a teacher for supporting a trans student, and Central Bucks’s million dollar disinformation campaign to avoid responsibility for creating a toxic, discriminatory environment for LGBTQ+ students – a charge currently being investigated by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
Full transcript of the episode available HERE.
Host Cyril Mychalejko’s 5 Book Recommendations to Further Shine a Light on the Issue
- The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children, by Katherine Stewart
- A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School, by Jennifer Berkshire
- Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization, by Maurice Cunningham
- Whose America?: Culture Wars in the Public Schools, by Jonathan Zimmerman
- The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, by Jeff Sharlet
ORGANIZATIONS
- Advocates for Inclusive Education (Bucks County)
- Central Bucks Neighbors United
- The Network for Public Education
- PFLAG
ALSO LISTEN TO:
- EPISODE 2 – The Merchants of Deception: The Dark Money and Front Groups Behind School Privatization, with Maurice Cunningham
- EPISODE 6 – The Right’s Long War On Public Education, With Jennifer Berkshire
- EPISODE 7 – Understanding Backlash Politics And Religious Conservatives Inciting School Board Wars, With PRRI’s Melissa Deckman
- EPISODE 10 – Raising A Transgender Child In An Increasingly Transphobic Country, With Brett Freeman
- EPISODE 11 – Unmasking Moms For Liberty’s Extremism, With Olivia Little And Diana Leygerman
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