Backlash For Central Bucks School Board Over Tamanend Middle School Trip Cancellation

DOYLESTOWN, PA — In the Central Bucks School District's latest controversy, board members are facing backlash after voting down Tamanend Middle School's proposed trip to Washington, D.C. due to concerns over vaccine mandates in some of the city's indoor spaces.

Board member Lisa Sciscio raised concern about the trip, saying that she felt it could exclude unvaccinated students — though Charles Malone, assistant superintendent, confirmed that the activities on the itinerary did not require proof of COVID-19 vaccination.

Board members specifically pointed to using restrooms and grabbing food as areas of concern — but according to the mayor's order, Washington, D.C.'s vaccine mandate does not apply to using public restrooms or getting takeout food.

After ascertaining that there might be time to plan a trip elsewhere — despite the D.C. trip bearing specific relevance to the 285 ninth-graders' history curriculum — the board members voted the trip down 7-1. Dr. Mariam Mahmud was not in attendance.

Sciscio suggested that instead, ninth-graders could go to Dorney Park and "learn about roller coasters."

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, board member Tabitha Dell'Angelo said after voting against the trip (while the other Democrat present, Karen Smith, voted for it) that she didn't know about the work-arounds available in Washington's policy.

“I would hate to see a kid in the middle of D.C. be humiliated,” she told the Inquirer Wednesday, then saying she wished she would have pressed administrators on other ways to navigate the situation.

In a post that's been retweeted almost 900 times, Diana Leygerman said:

Our [school board] just cancelled a field trip to DC where students were supposed to visit the Holocaust Museum because a School Board Member's kid isn't vaccinated. An important educational trip cancelled because she made a choice but isn't willing to accept the consequences of that choice.

Some community members have drawn connections between voting down a trip that would have included a visit to the Holocaust Museum (along with several other museums, monuments, and memorials) and a past board's failure to condemn comments that were widely regarded as transphobic and antisemitic.

At the time, four board members did make a public statement saying they stood against offensive speech.

On Twitter, Renee Edelman said:

Central Bucks [school board] couldn't muster a unified statement against anti-semitism after an unhinged rant by a community member at a board meeting 3 months ago. Now [board] votes against field trip to Holocaust Museum & suggests amusement park as a substitute.

No board members immediately responded to Patch's request for comment on this issue.

Karen Smith, the lone supporter of the trip in the vote, told the Bucks County Courier Times that she believed Sciscio was solely motivated by concerns around vaccines, masks, and the pandemic.

Smith also told the news organization that Tohickon Middle School cancelled their trip to D.C., too, even though it had been previously approved.

Read more on Tuesday's board meeting: Central Bucks Will No Longer Update COVID Cases: Superintendent

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