Neshaminy To Fight Human Relations Commission Decision

The PHRC has committed to residents that they will hold a lecture series, townhall meeting, and talk back sessions in Bucks County in the coming months.

The full statement from the Neshaminy School District:

During the six years of litigation over the Redskins issue, the Neshaminy School District has made no public statements of the kind presented here. But, in light of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission’s (“PHRC”) November 25, 2019, decision, the District believes that it is important for it to make a brief statement on this matter within limitations the still ongoing litigation imposes on the District’s ability to comment.

The District recognizes the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission’s (“PHRC”) role in enforcing anti-discrimination laws.

But the District strongly disagrees with how the PHRC has treated the District, which treatment should concern the taxpaying citizens of this Commonwealth who fund the PHRC’s operations.

In 2013, a Neshaminy parent filed a complaint with the PHRC for her now-graduated child who identified as Native American and claimed that the use of the word Redskins and related Native American imagery were discriminatory and caused him educational and other harm. The PHRC took a leading role in the case.

While the District hoped to resolve the case, the PHRC never had an investigator visit the District to speak with faculty, administration, or students, review records, or to gain any understanding of the District. Rather, the PHRC ultimately issued a “Finding” that the District was acting in discriminatory manner and directed the District not only to cease using the word Redskins but also to spend what could reach towards a million dollars in public funds to alter its facilities and programs. Apart from the intimidating nature of the PHRC directive and its incorrect findings, the District was deeply concerned that the PHRC was interfering with the duly elected School Board’s statutory authority over how the District spends public funds and to approve educational programming. Accordingly, the District was compelled to oppose the PHRC’s directive.

In October 2015, within just a few days after the action on behalf of the Neshaminy student was voluntarily withdrawn, the PHRC filed a new complaint with itself as the complainant. The new complaint relied on the report of a supposed expert who portrayed the District as racially hostile for Native Americans and intentionally causing educational and other harm to Native American and other students. The District was demonized by the PHRC’s allegations, which falsely cast the District, and its community, in highly negative light.

Again, no PHRC investigator visited the District; and the expert who accused the District of being racially hostile never visited the District, spoke with a single student or District employee, or reviewed any District records. The District later learned through the sworn deposition testimony of the former PHRC Executive Director that she approved the October 2015 complaint without any knowledge of the PHRC’s lack of investigative efforts or reading the expert report on which the complaint was based.

And again, it appeared the PHRC sought to interfere with the authority of the duly elected School Board in directing the District to cease use of the word Redskins and spend what might well reach towards a million dollars in public funds to alter facilities and programs. The District, therefore, was compelled to oppose the directive.

At the January 2019 week-long public hearing, the PHRC was not able to produce a single Native American student to testify, even after six years of effort. Nor, after six years of effort, did the PHRC produce any non-Native American student to testify that she/he was racist or insensitive towards Native Americans as a result of the District’s actions.

Much of the PHRC’s case at the public hearing was not focused on issues related to Native American students, history or culture, but rather on the testimony of a small group of non-Native American, former Neshaminy students who were school newspaper editors, some of whom graduated over 15 years ago. These former school newspaper editors testified as to why, when they were students, they objected to the District’s use of the word Redskins. Some of the former editors further testified to their opinions that their supposed First Amendment rights gave them the power to ban the word Redskins from the District-owned school newspaper over any objections of the District or their fellow students.

The District presented a battery of witnesses including an expert witness, administrators, teachers, counselors, students and community members all of whom gave testimony that demonstrated that the District was not engaged in any activity that was discriminatory or hostile towards Native American students or people.

The District cannot comment in any detail about the PHRC’s November 25, 2019, decision given that the litigation is ongoing. While the PHRC’s November 25, 2019, decision allows the District to use the word Redskins, the decision, nevertheless, accuses the District of acting unlawfully and harming students when there are no factual or legal bases to do so. Many aspects of the decision concern the District in that it appears the PHRC seeks to interfere with students’ First Amendment rights, School Board autonomy, and the District’s effort to teach students to think independently as opposed to indoctrinating them with certain points of view.

The public should be aware that many schools in Pennsylvania use Native American team names (including Redskins) and imagery. Yet, the PHRC has spent six years, and presumably significant taxpayer supported resources, singling out Neshaminy and treating it as if it is unique when it is not.

The District hopes that a resolution of this matter will be reached but again faces a situation that compels the District to continue with the litigation through an appeal to the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court.

The District further hopes that this statement will assist the public in understanding what the District, and its community, have faced over the past six years as the PHRC has continued to press unsubstantiated allegations of racism.

Finally, the District hopes that reporters will begin to ask the PHRC hard questions about how the PHRC has approached this litigation.

Related:

• Commission Orders Neshaminy To Stop Using Stereotypical Native American Imagery
• Human Relations Commission Pushes ‘Redskins’ Vote
• Week-Long Hearing On ‘Redskins’ Name Concludes
• Neshaminy Staff Testifies On Neshaminy ‘Redskins’ Name
• Teacher, Former Student Testify In Neshaminy ‘Redskins’ Case
• ‘Redskins’ Use Hearing Underway
• Neshaminy ‘Redskins’ Name Will Be Subject Of Human Relations Commission Hearing
• Editors & Public Recap The Playwickian ‘Redskins’ Scandal
• Playwickian Editors To Speak At Constitution Event
• Neshaminy Votes to Approve Controversial Publication Policy
• Could Neshaminy be Sued Over Newspaper Controversy?
• School Newspaper’s Social Media Accounts Taken Down
• Neshaminy High School Admin Accused of Pulling ‘Playwickian’ Copies
• Neshaminy Committee Tables Controversial Newspaper Policy
• Controversial Neshaminy Policy Going Back to Committee
• Neshaminy Board Hears Public Comment on Revised Policy
• Neshaminy Board Moves ‘Redskin’ Policy Vote on Heels of Letter from Lawyer Representing Students
• Neshaminy Lawyer: Editors Can’t Stop Students from Using Redskin Name
• Neshaminy Mulls Blocking Student Paper Ban on ‘Redskins’ Name