Central Bucks School Board To Choose New Member Tuesday

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The Central Bucks school board is set to choose a new member at its meeting Tuesday night to replace the board’s former vice president, who stepped down last month amid heated debates over masking in schools.

John Gamble abruptly resigned as school director for Region 9, which covers Warwick, after the debates over masking boiled over into online harassment and threats of violence against him and his family.

He said during the board’s Aug. 31 meeting that his wife, a Central Bucks teacher, had a security guard stationed outside her classroom after receiving threats from community members.

“COVID has broken you people, and it’s disgusting,” Gamble said to community members that night. “I watch how you treat each other in here. It’s disgusting.”

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Six residents applied to fill the vacancy Gamble left on the board, though one has since withdrawn her name from consideration for the seat. The board’s eight remaining members plan to vote Tuesday night to appoint a new member.

Candidates for the seat include Robert Farley, Andrew Miller, Svetlana Shubinsky, Jennifer True and T.J. Kosin, cofounder of the Proud American Patriots Network, which has made headlines in recent months for its purported links to militia groups and right-wing organizations.

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The Proud American Patriots Network planned to hold a lengthy protest in August outside the Central Bucks School District’s administrative offices before board members met to discuss its masking policy. The group later canceled that protest after some claimed online that it was a right-wing militia organization.

The Proud American Patriots Network tried to deny its affiliations with the Three Percenters movement — which has been linked to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and is considered a terrorist entity by Canada — but Kosin recently confirmed to the Bucks County Courier Times that he was a Three Percenter until last summer.

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Each candidate responded to several questions posed by the Central Bucks school board ahead of Tuesday night’s meeting. Residents can read their answers here:

• Robert Farley
• Theodore Kosin
• Andrew Miller
• Svetlana Shubinsky
• Jennifer True

Kosin, Farley and Shubinsky are registered as Republicans, while Miller and True are not affiliated with any major party, the Bucks County Courier Times reports.