(piano playing "You'll Never Walk Alone") CHOIR: ♪ When you walk ♪ Through a storm ♪ Keep your chin ♪ Up high ♪ And don't be afraid ♪ Of the dark REPORTER: The effort to save musical theater icon Oscar Hammerstein's Bucks County farm has been an ongoing drama for years.

REPORTER: The famous lyricist's home will be preserved.

69 News reporter Bo Koltnow has the update.

GREG ROTH: Some of the songs that are known the world over were written right here.

And we think it's critical to preserve and protect his legacy not only as a lyricist, but also as a humanitarian.

STEVE SANTARSIERO: Here in Bucks County, we are so fortunate that Oscar Hammerstein II made this his home.

This is where he wrote so many of those melodies that we all grew up hearing.

A lot of the themes that Oscar Hammerstein touched on in his work, including, including things like social justice.

And I remembered about a line my dad used to quote all the time from "South Pacific," "You have to be taught.

You have to be very carefully taught."

(camera shutters clicking) That was referring to passing along racism and bigotry.

And we are in an era now in our history, both as a country, but also in the world, where we should remember those words.

ROTH: Thank you, Senator.

(audience applauds) It's really cool to think that Oscar Hammerstein lived right here in Bucks County.

Yes!

Oh, my God, I love his music, and I love that he stood for social justice and stuff.

Like, his song, "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught."

Like, you're not born with, like, hatred or bigotry or racism or any of that.

It's, like, taught to you.

♪ VANESSA: The school board election's coming up, and people are gonna be fighting over all kinds of things.

Like LGBTQ rights and pride flags and neutrality.

It's gonna be a wild ride.

VANESSA: And my mom's running.

♪ REPORTER: School boards are now the center of culture wars.

REPORTER: And in a week and a half, you'll decide.

Heated primaries give you different visions for how to run your neighborhood school.

WOMAN: Paul Martino says the goal of his PAC is to take the fight directly to the liberal teachers' unions and special interest groups that are responsible for indoctrinating our children.

He calls the parents, local parents here who do his dirty work, like, "assets," his "assets"-- he actually said those words.

"Oh, the Martinos are trying to take over the whole district."

It's, like, "That's right.

"We're gonna take over the whole district "and make everyone learn math and learn how to code," right?

- (laughs) "That's what we're gonna do to all y'all."

Yes.

- The Martino name is linked to the chaos on the board.

There is an unfair, completely misleading press narrative to generate frenzy that is not justified.

There's some scary stuff happening.

There are people making threats to our board members.

MAN (on voicemail): You (muted).

Hopefully you get cancer, suffer, and die before the year's up.

I don't know what's gonna happen if we don't win.

How do we live in this community?

The board that we have now is trying to push through as many things as they can.

Some of these board members are extreme in their beliefs.

Are you worried that, if we lose the majority, that there's going to be a lot of reversals?

I feel like the focus will not be on academics.

The focus will be on, on social issues... Yeah.

...while we've made a concerted effort to take those out of the classroom.

- Yeah.

♪ I'm Vanessa.

- And I'm Evi.

And this is the story of our town.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (people talking in background) LISA SCISCIO: On Sunday, I spent the morning what many people in our community do.

I prayed.

In fact, I prayed for you, Karen, Tabitha, and Mariam.

(audience murmuring) I prayed that you would see... (woman shushes) ...what you-- yeah, I know, it's pretty radical, right?

I pray that you would see what you were doing is wrong.

I prayed that you would stop defaming and demonizing the good people on this board.

I prayed that you would stop using vulnerable and innocent children as pawns.

HUNTER: Any other comments?

SMITH: I have comments.

A number of people have asked me over the last couple of months how this... The folks who don't like me, you know, they have their ideas, and I'm getting in the way of what it is that they want to implement.

♪ (goat bleating) We are actually at my home and my farm.

My life will be a lot easier, a lot smoother, if I didn't have, uh, 20 rescued animals... (laughs) ...I was caring for every day.

But the thing about animals is... ...they, I mean, they do give back to you.

They, um, they're just appreciative for whatever you do for them.

Come on, French Toast, come on.

Come on, buns, come on.

Right, little man?

Yeah.

We have one horse, two donkeys, two ponies, four goats, five sheep, an assortment of chickens, depending on how many have survived the latest fox attack.

(sheep bleating) My youngest son, Alex, ended up attending a therapeutic boarding facility in Utah, which was on a working cattle ranch.

When he got home, we moved here, and at the time, it was just regular property, and we've since turned it into a farm.

(goat bleats) Okay.

I was first elected to the Central Bucks School Board in 2015 and then I was elected again in 2019.

At that time, I was a Republican.

I was elected to my seat as a Republican.

But I would say, in the last two years, the anti-LGBTQ sentiment in the Republican Party has just exploded.

Get back, Donna.

Yeah, you're not allowed in here.

(goat snuffles) Shoo-- shoo.

That really was the final tipping point for me.

I changed my party.

♪ AARATI: Oh, so nice to meet you.

It's nice to meet you, as well.

I got y'all shirts if anyone wants a shirt.

(others exclaiming) So I'll just leave these.

They're, unfortunately, they're really big.

This district was originally a very conservative district, and I think that's why it was actually so, why it became prestigious, because we taught kids things like grit and responsibility and character.

You actually talk to a lot of the older board members, they said that's how this district was founded.

And it'd be just a real shame if bad philosophies that have now permeated some of the bigger cities would now come here and ruin this district, as well.

And so we do really need to fight this.

(talking indistinctly) SMITH: This election could not be more important or more critical to our community, I don't think.

WOMAN: Yes, yes, yes.

SMITH: Some folks seem to think that allowing kids to talk about their identity is in some way leading students or grooming students to becoming LGBTQ.

(people talking in background) My heart breaks for some of these kids who are made to feel like they're wrong in who they are.

Florida's Parental Rights in Education bill has been dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill by LGBTQ activists.

They have created a complete false narrative, a false name.

There are people that are marginalized in this country, and you're using them as a political tool.

RON DESANTIS: The bill prohibits classroom instruction about sexuality or transgender in K through three classrooms.

WOMAN: This is about ostracizing, shaming LGBTQ kids and their families.

This is a concerted effort, and it's very coordinated, because the bills actually all have the same language.

Republicans are trying to build long-term sustainable power.

They're trying to make sure that what our kids are learning in schools will cultivate the kind of citizens who will grow up to be long-term Republican voters.

We chose education over indoctrination.

(audience cheers) We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob.

Florida is where woke goes to die.

(audience cheering) A controversial new policy at the Central Bucks School District continues to cause outrage.

REPORTER: It's called Policy 321.

It restricts any display or discussion related to partisan political or social policy matters.

REPORTER: Some saying it would target discussion about LGBTQ causes and ban pride flags, while supporters said it was just a way to create neutrality in the classroom and keep tight to the curriculum.

HUNTER: Policy 321 is setting the professional expectation that teachers create an environment for students where every student feels welcome.

It's to prevent adults from pushing their own views on students.

SMITH: The language insinuates that our teachers are attempting to indoctrinate kids into becoming Democrats, liberals, progressives, snowflakes.

Whatever word you choose to use.

It restricts what our teachers can talk about, what teachers can display in the classroom.

Um... I was horrified when I saw that language in the policy.

VLASBLOM: It doesn't impact a teacher being able to have tough conversations with their students.

The only thing that you, that is asked is that you really allow the opportunity for all sides of the argument or the situation to be discussed and expressed.

STEVEN: I had a teacher who was very adamant about his political views.

One time, I tried to hold the door for one of my female classmates and I said, "Ladies first."

And I got called out, you know, for being a misogynist and for, for being disrespectful and whatnot.

And it was a shock to me.

DEARMOND: Never at any time did I know my teachers' political viewpoint.

I look at my own children and I just want them to have that same, um, sort of blank slate in the classroom.

Teach them reading, writing, math, these kinds of things.

Not how to be anti-racist.

Like, school's not the place for that.

LILY: A lot of people argue that school is a place only for, as quoted by many people, "reading, writing, and arithmetic."

But what they don't understand is that there are so many other things that kids learn in school.

It's so important in the classroom environment to be able to have a conversation and to be able to, like, get different points of view.

Hi!

BRETT: Hello, welcome home.

(Lily chuckles) BRETT: How was your day?

- Good.

My name is Lily Freeman.

I was born in Furlong and I've lived in this house my entire life.

I grew up in the Central Bucks area.

I live with my mom and my dad, my dog, and my two sisters.

I love really anything that I can do to be creative.

I love performing, I love sewing, I love drawing.

I love really anything of that sort.

I feel like you can get your emotions out and you can get a message out in so many different ways, which I find so cool.

MAN: So, the focus for this today is, I really want to make sure that our arms are all doing the same thing, so it's really nice and clean, okay?

Um... LILY: With performing arts, it's a different way to convey emotions.

It's very physically expressive, which I like.

It's a very rewarding process.

It's very relieving and therapeutic in some ways.

MAN: One-- three, four!

LILY: It's, like, the first show I've done here in a while.

This was a place that, like, really means a lot to me.

...six, seven, eight!

(claps) LILY: When I'm here, I kind of feel like I'm just doing, like, normal high-schooler stuff.

(taps clicking) (music playing) (ends on chord) I feel like I'm just, like, me.

(taps clicking) MAN: Seven, eight.

LILY: I didn't really feel that I'd be an activist 'cause I just wanted to kind of live my life as a kid, but I feel like I couldn't necessarily turn myself away from the number of problems.

I just want to say that all of these words are my own.

I felt like it was kind of my job to speak up against that.

MAN: ...recipient of human and civil rights... LILY: For so long, there was progression in the school district.

And now it's kind of gone in the opposite direction, and we're going backwards.

♪ EVI: I think it's important that kids' voices are really heard.

Like, with Policy 321, it's supposed to be about, like, political neutrality, but then they're grouping in pride flags, which is so stupid, 'cause pride flags are not political.

It's just showing support for a minority group.

I'll say that till I die.

The kids that knew about it were all outraged, outraged and scared.

They're using children for their own gain, and in the process, they're hurting children.

(talking in background) HUNTER: They framed it as a pride flag ban.

That's what 321 became.

There is no justification for banning support for an important demographic in our school, especially when numerous studies have shown just a pride flag hanging up in the hallway or on a teacher's shirt can save lives.

KITTY: I want everybody to understand the lack of safety that some of our students experience.

And I mean physical violence, like being slammed into lockers, having kids lean forward and whisper threats in their ear.

Ugly, really, truly frightening things.

Being queer in CBSD means being afraid, and it shouldn't.

And I know this because as soon as I leave the doors of my school, I breathe a sigh of relief.

LILY: There's a lot of fear over stuff that shouldn't be feared.

Over just regular people.

WOMAN (over loudspeaker): Pride is not political!

Pride is not political!

If people really cared about the well-being and education of the students, they would listen to students when we tell them that what they're doing is wrong.

PROTESTERS (chanting): 321 has got to go!

WOMAN: Hey, hey!

Ho, ho!

321 has got to go!

LELA: It, it really feels like the heart of all of this is this, like, hatred towards the LGBTQ community.

Like, of almost everything.

They're so brainwashed by MAGA ideology that... Right, like, I don't think Paul Martino feels that way.

I don't think he cares about LGBTQ issues.

I think he's using that concern... Oh, of course!

...for, for gaining power... People like him always do.

- ...and finances.

Yeah, yeah, exactly, he's, like, the puppet master of all this.

- He's an opportunist.

He's, like, "Oh, you guys are worried about this?

Oh, you know, here's how I have the answer."

Yeah.

ROBERT MAY: Tell us who Paul Martino is.

(groans, laughs) Paul Martino is a local parent.

He calls himself a hardcore Republican.

So, you know... I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but he's a hardcore, bad, mean person.

PAUL: The fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals in modern times.

Conservatives think... - Oh, yeah.

...that liberals have bad policies.

Liberals think conservatives are bad people.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (people talking in background) WOMAN: I gotta break it to you.

It's not neutrality that welcomes people.

Yes, Policy 321 bans the pride flag, but it also bans compassion.

It bans a teacher from denouncing anti-LGBTQ+ hate, anti-Semitism, or slavery.

How can you teach those histories without teaching their harm?

KITTY: The LGBTQ kids are there, in our schools, and they have always been there, in our schools.

The pride flag says to them, "You are welcome here."

Is it political to recognize the existence of a child?

DEARMOND: I received a message from a parent in this district.

Her daughter wanted to know when Policy 321 will go into effect because she is in a classroom where she can't concentrate due to all the propaganda on the walls.

She is afraid to speak up because she is afraid that the teacher will treat her differently.

MILO MORRIS: I identify as an androphile and I have been with my man for nearly 35 years.

I think the pride flag puts too much focus on a student's sexual orientation or gender identity at the expense of other, more vital aspects of their humanity.

Students are better served by faculty who will support their individuality rather than treating them as a bloc.

Thank you and good night.

(audience cheering and applauding) HUNTER: That concludes public comment for the evening.

I call the question.

JAMES PEPPER: Second.

(audience applauds) EVI: The school board is about to vote on 321, the neutrality policy.

VANESSA: They only need five votes to pass it.

No matter how it goes, someone is gonna be disappointed.

SECRETARY: Mrs.

Cannon?

CANNON: Yes.

SECRETARY: Collopy?

COLLOPY: Yes.

SECRETARY: Dr.

Dell'Angelo?

TABITHA DELL'ANGELO: No.

SECRETARY: Dr.

Mahmud?

MARIAM MAHMUD: No.

SPEAKER: Mr.

Pepper?

PEPPER: Yes.

SPEAKER: Ms.

Sciscio?

SCISCIO: Yes.

SPEAKER: Mrs.

Smith?

SMITH: No.

SECRETARY: Vlasblom?

VLASBLOM: Yes.

SECRETARY: President Hunter?

HUNTER: Yes.

Motion passes.

(audience applauding and cheering) MAN: Thank you!

(applause continues) (people talking in background) (crickets chirping) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ PAUL: All the mail is the same, though.

"Martino, don't you understand that all of this is your fault?"

The underlying theme is, "You're the one responsible for this."

Like, wait a minute, I'm the one responsible for a policy trying to remove politics from the classroom?

I can't ask for a better outcome than to actually immunize our kids from being involved in the vitriol that we're involved in.

But yet that gets labeled as an anti-LGBTQ policy because you can no longer have pride flags in the classroom.

That's absurd to me.

♪ The picture that's been painted of the majority in this district is grossly unfair.

I love all our students.

My feeling is that we need to support all of our students.

Because my idea of what that looks like may be different than yours doesn't, it doesn't mean I'm anti-anything.

Um, and I... I guess one of my biggest frustrations is that there are adults in this community that would tell children that that's not the case.

These are also those local people who pretend that they're all about unity in our community and... It's funny, they're the same people... "We're," you know, "you're bullying..." ...who will call you names online!

You're bullying children by not allowing, you know, by writing policies... They're the same people who are the worst offenders of bullying and harassment on social media that I have ever seen.

Yeah.

- The things they say about other, other... - Yeah.

...human beings?

- Yeah.

The, the names they call people?

Oh, oh, I feel like the, um, death threats and the real vitriolic, inappropriate emails... They have eased up.

- ...the very last one that I received... That was a bad one.

- ...where they sent it to all the businesses in Doylestown... Mm-hmm.

- ...accu, saying basically that I had molested my niece and that my husband and I were known pedophiles, that had crossed the line.

I mean... - Yeah.

...that was... - That was bad.

The other stuff crossed the line, but that was a lot, just, to accuse us of something so egregious and disgusting, it... You have, at some point, somebody has to say... "Enough's enough."

- ..."Enough is enough."

I agree with you.

MAN (on voicemail): Doing a story right now on that (muted) Leigh Vlasblom.

We're trying to confirm if her husband is indeed a pedophile.

MAN (on voicemail): You're such a rock brain.

Hopefully, a semitruck plows into you today for the betterment of humankind.

HUNTER: It's scary.

I mean, it, it's frightening 'cause I have children.

It's frightening because we go to school board meetings and you sit up there, people know who you are.

Um... And I mean, I don't know who this is.

I don't know if they live in the community.

I don't know if they have a gun, I don't... It's... ♪ Yeah, I mean, I just don't know.

I think I do a good job of trying not to take it personally.

The people that I feel bad for are my family.

Um... I feel bad for my kids and my husband.

And, um... ...my brothers and my sister-in-laws and my parents.

MAY: Did they hear it all?

Yeah.

They do.

And do you feel that you've been vilified?

Yeah, I do.

Um... I feel bad when I hear that they've been mistreated by people.

(voice breaking) (sniffles) (crying): I'm sorry.

(sniffles) (exhales) KITTY: At our last board meeting, Dana Hunter, our school board president, began it by playing a voicemail that she had received.

And it was filthy and terrible.

I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.

And the message was, to the community, "You need to do better."

(sighs) I want to help us find common ground around the schools.

I believe that's doable, I think it's important, I think it's necessary.

I think it's a, a, you know, foundational ground for democracy.

KATE NAZEMI: ...explain one of the reasons why we want it... KITTY: My friend Kate Nazemi and I began this group, Advocates for Inclusive Education.

What we want to try to do is bring the community together... NAZEMI: Okay.

KITTY: ...around centering the students.

I've had this idea that it, like, what brings people together?

What do people always like?

(people talking in background) Food.

Give somebody an ice cream cone, it's really hard for them to be horrible to you.

If you get people doing something together, then they just, you know, their shoulders go down, they just-- it's a little better, it's, it's nice.

(people talking in background) Like, we don't want to always get locked into... (growls) Right.

- You know?

It's, it's always about what public schools could be, what our schools could look like, and how to make them awesome.

NAZEMI: Hi!

Come on in.

You here for the ice cream?

KITTY: Good to see you.

Thanks for coming.

WOMAN: Yes, when I saw that people were welcome, I was, like, "I'm, I'm going to go."

'Cause I like that... KITTY: I am so glad you did.

WOMAN: I talk to people who think, like, certain things about me, and they say the same thing.

They're, like, "You're a really nice person."

And I go... - Yeah.

Um, you really can't, like, make, you know... Mm-hmm.

- ...prejudgments about people like that, so... - Right.

Yeah, so I'm awfully glad you came.

Yeah.

(people talking in background) KITTY: Hello, everybody, excuse me.

I just want to interrupt all the festivities for one second.

We are really happy to host you all.

It's wonderful to see you all.

We wanted to have something that was positive and fun to kick off the summer.

We finished the school year, the kids are, like... MARK SEMISCH: You ready for a little wine?

KITTY: I am ready for a little wine.

MARK: All right.

(cabinet opens) KITTY: I grew up on what had been a fruit farm in Rochester, New York, and I had a really wonderful, kind of almost fabled childhood.

Cheers.

- Cheers.

I spent most of my time climbing trees, jumping on rocks around the stream.

It was a real Upstate New York childhood.

I have four older siblings.

It's very difficult to put into words how different we are now and how much fun we had.

We don't agree on many things.

There, there's sort of, um, some siblings on this side of the political divide, some, some siblings on that side of the political divide.

It mirrors my parents.

My father was very, very conservative, a Goldwater Republican.

My mother strongly and vocally supported civil rights.

I remember asking them when I was a very small kid, "Are you gonna get divorced?"

Because they fought a lot about politics.

MARK: A fair amount.

KITTY: I found out that you can love somebody and respect and admire them and also disagree with them.

I think that's a very big challenge for some people, that if somebody you loved held certain views, then if you don't hold those views, do you love them less?

I do not love my parents less.

♪ How corrosive is the fear of each other that it has driven us to hateful speech?

EVI: And the movie, where the guy kept moving it, that was such a vibe.

I love that movie.

- Oh!

There's a song called "Groundhog Day."

It's pretty fire.

- Yeah?

VANESSA: Yeah.

EVI: I watched somewhere on some show that, um, humans, like, when they're evolving, they got over me-versus-us, and they're able to work in groups, but they're still struggling with us-versus-them.

Like, we can't see groups different from ourselves as other people.

I love Pocky.

That's why it's really important to be able to talk to people outside, different backgrounds, and be able to see that, hey, we're all just people.

We should get the big rainbow lollipops.

VANESSA: Oh, my gosh.

EVI: They're the size of my face.

VANESSA: Yes.

I've been trying to be more observant of people lately and more empathetic, so, I guess I've been trying to be a good friend by doing that.

My brother said that if he could never eat, he wouldn't.

Oh, he would like a long Tootsie Roll.

Tootsie Roll!

Get it!

I want to be friends with Vanessa forever.

I'm so glad she's in my life.

I think it's important to become friends with people, like, from other opinions, because then you could, they could change you and you could change them, which is, which is good.

(people talking in background) I think it's nice to build bridges.

VANESSA: Evi and I participated in a student roundtable.

It had kids from both sides of the political spectrum and it was super-cool to get to talk to everyone.

ALEXANDRA: Every month, it's, like, you're talking with your friends, they're, like, "Oh, did you see what, like, the school board did?"

It's almost like a bad TV show episode or something.

(all laugh) Like, what's the news about the school board?

These policies, like, the advocacy policies, where they take down the pride flags, I think that it begins this kind of culture where it's acceptable to sort of diminish people into their identities.

And I think that that is kind of, like, a dangerous precedent to set.

I see, I see more pride flags in my school than American flags, and it makes people who have a different opinion than that feel a little unsafe.

Like, it, it... You have to think about the other side, too.

EVI: It's not, like, really an opinion to, like, acknowledge that people exist.

KARSTEN: Well, it's making the other side not feel as secure in faith.

LILY: It doesn't mean to, you know, belittle other people or make other people unsafe.

It's just to uplift certain people who are really struggling now.

KARSTEN: Well, where is it going to stop, right?

Are we going to put a flag for every group that feels, like, a little bit bad about themselves?

Why don't we just take all the flags down and just tell them that they're fine, that it's okay, but we're not going to skew the entire school one way because just you feel a certain way about how you want to live your life.

LILY: I think it's because there's nuance to it.

There's discrimination in schools.

That's something we can all agree on.

But putting up a flag in a school isn't going to change everyone else's mind.

EVI: It doesn't matter if it changes people's mind, it just, as long as it makes people feel safe, then I think it's worth it to have.

It should go without saying that teachers support their students.

Yeah, in a perfect world, like, every teacher would, like, be supportive of a student.

And you would know, like, guaranteed, going into a classroom that, yes, that teacher supports you.

But in our world, like, you don't know that.

LILY: People who are LGBTQ, people who identify as trans or gay or whatever, they're people, and they're just trying to live their lives.

But unfortunately, there is discrimination that holds them back from being able to be their true, authentic selves.

And what these, you know, pride flags have been able to do, it shows that even though there are people that believe that they shouldn't exist, that there are still people that are there for them.

STEVEN: We can probably acknowledge that the LGBTQ community does experience some form of hate.

There's a conflict going on in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine.

Is it safe to say that next to an, next to a LGBTQ flag, we should hang a flag for Israel?

Where do marginalized communities, where do we stop representing them?

XAVIER: I just think, look at our differences, like, put them aside and then find the connections where we can shake hands and come together to find a solution instead of just fighting over our differences.

LEYGERMAN: Both sides are saying that this, every, this election is to save the children.

LELA: Right.

If we don't win, it's not just gonna be terrible for our children, it's terrible for the community overall.

- Yes.

So, like, when I think about, if we don't win, I think about, then, then where do we go?

Because this is not just here.

Like, you're right, we are, like, the center of things, but it's not-- this is spreading everywhere.

I mean, I have friends in California who are going through similar things.

It is everywhere.

So if we don't stay and hold our ground and say, like, "We're not okay with this," like, this is gonna continue through the country, and, and leading up to 2024.

- Right.

And then... (inhales) - Yeah.

We'll have Trump for president, and then... (laughs): ...there'll be nowhere safe to go.

There'll be nowhere safe.

- No.

And, like, when we're saying we're fighting for this, we're, we're fighting for our kids, we're actually not only fighting for our kids, we're fighting for the entire community.

Yeah.

- You know?

And then the country, whether they like it or not!

(laughs) Whether they want it or not, you know?

Like... If we go to Vermilion, which is the next step, and our children are being taught that, you know, people who were enslaved actually really liked it and it wasn't so bad, right?

So then these kids go into the world without any knowledge of how the world works.

This, with these, like, white nationalist ideas.

I think Pennridge and Central Bucks were, like, the first in, like, this experiment, I guess.

They won, they took over, they started ruining things.

LELA: Because we're such a swing county.

VANESSA: Central Bucks is big.

It's the third-largest school district in Pennsylvania.

EVI: Yeah, but Pennridge is just as crazy as Central Bucks.

VANESSA: And that's in a town called Perkasie.

REPORTER: Things are cooling down this morning, after a heated night in one Bucks County school district.

The Pennridge School Board took comment from the public on a private curriculum firm it just hired.

REPORTER: "Vermilion Education helps school boards ensure "an accurate and high-quality education for their students," its website states.

But it has also widely been criticized for pushing biased and politically driven curriculum.

KEVIN MAHONEY: Vermilion Education is founded by Jordan Adams.

It comes out of Hillsdale College, and they want to promote this kind of Hillsdale 1776 curriculum.

ADAMS: We hope to share with you some information about the Hillsdale 1776 curriculum.

ROBERT GARROW: We begin with-- controversial belief these days-- that patriotism is a virtue.

Two of the harder things to teach from a patriotic perspective are the removal of the Indians and slavery, and there's no need to dance around those subjects.

Instead of ignoring it, or taking it as the defining feature, defining characteristic of America, one can simply teach it and say, "These are the people who are arguing for it.

"These are the people who are arguing against it.

This is what happened, and now let's talk about it."

MAHONEY: You could see it rolling out in Florida.

Like, the carpet was already prepared.

Jordan Adams had been consulting with Ron DeSantis already about some of the higher education policies and kind of, like, scrubbing the curriculum of D.E.I.

initiatives and things like this.

KATHRYN JOYCE: The Vermilion contract there failed.

And then very, very shortly thereafter... - Yeah.

JOYCE: ...there was the announcement that it had been picked up in Pennridge instead.

Vermilion was something that was coming from... (speaks indistinctly) - ...much broader than just the Pennridge G.O.P.

It was coming from the national level.

It's Christian nationalism, right?

So it's kind of the ideology that God created the rest of the world, but he saved his best for America.

Now, hook me up like you've hooked yourself up, man.

Come on, you know how... - (chuckles) It's all good.

You want me to get the yogurt out?

ADRIENNE: I am Adrienne King.

DONTE: I'm Donte King.

I'll share.

DONTE: You gonna share with me?

Oh, thank you.

Thank you so much for sharing.

We met on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh in our pre-freshman year.

Since then, we've been together.

ADRIENNE: He's a protector... You?

Just for you?

...and he's usually my voice of reason.

He's just become that place that I feel safe.

I grew up in a single-parent home.

We lived for a little bit in Philadelphia, in Montgomery County.

I was always around people that looked like me.

When we moved to Bucks County, I remember realizing the difference.

Because there was the lack of inclusion, there was the lack of teaching beyond Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, I left this school district very ignorant of my own culture.

(water running) Through my 12 years of education, it was more about survival and assimilation than being proud and standing out.

(speaking indistinctly) And so when we brought our girls here, we were present in their school, looking around, listening and seeing, right?

Are they seeing representation in their school?

Is the right environment being set up for them, right?

To be successful, right?

- Correct.

For them to feel safe.

(people talking in background) When I didn't see some of those things, I'm very vocal about it.

CHAIR: The moment everyone's been waiting for.

Um, update on Vermilion.

(audience applauding) While our invited guest speaks to us, I would sincerely ask that everyone listens and suspends whatever preconceived notions or biases you may hold.

My name is Jordan Adams.

I'm founder of Vermilion Education.

It's a K-12 education consulting business.

MAN: I have a few questions for you, Jordan.

In your experience-- I guess you've been in business five months-- how many public schools are you consulting with?

I don't need to know the names of them, just the number.

ADAMS: Yeah, sure-- no, you're right.

Yeah, so, I mean, Pennridge is the, is the first board that has contracted with Vermilion Education.

And, you know, I'm happy to, to start off working with you guys.

WOMAN: Everybody that I have talked to about this curriculum has no issue whatsoever with the content of it.

None-- in fact, are excited to work with it.

WOMAN: Who are they?

MAN: Name the teacher.

- Um... MAN: Objection.

MAN: Name the teacher!

MAN: Please be in order.

ADRIENNE: Myself and another parent made a trip to Harrisburg to talk to the Department of Education about what was going on in this school district.

The response was, "There isn't anything that we can do."

No one's coming in on a white horse to save us here.

(chuckles) We as a community have to rise up and save ourselves.

Hello, hello-- can everybody hear me okay?

(crowd applauding and cheering) Yeah.

Awesome.

So our school board has continuously showed its dysfunction, its lack of leadership, and disregard for making student-centered decisions in policies and curriculum.

It's deteriorating the quality of education for all students in our school district.

You know, you're not just voting through a piece of paper.

You're voting through words and actions that are going to impact somebody on the other side.

I had a friend that was telling me a story the other day.

She was at the local swimming pool.

(sniffs) And she's white.

And she was, happened to be sitting near somebody else who was white, and their children were swimming, and there was a Black young boy who was there, and he was swimming.

And the person looked over to her and goes, "Wow, he's a really good swimmer.

I didn't think Black people could swim."

This is where we live.

And limiting what's being taught is contributing to that ignorance.

The risk is our children being... (murmurs) - ...the subject of whatever ignorance is out there.

DONTE: I'll say it's a petri dish of what is probably happening all across America.

You know, my kids, I didn't think that they were gonna run into some of the things that my grandfather, my grandmother, their great-grandmother, great-grandfather, you know, faced, and that's the sad part.

That's the sad part.

(birds calling) LILY: I feel like, by hearing the trials and tribulations that marginalized groups have gone through, that's how we improve.

But with these policies now, I mean, you're not going to be able to learn those experiences.

Ever since the neutrality policy was passed, teachers are, like, scared to talk about certain stuff, you know?

I feel like there's, like, this, like, hysteria, which is kind of weird, because, like, like, I feel like I'm stuck in a history book right now.

SMITH: There's no getting away from the fact that, if you're an LGBTQ student in Central Bucks, it's a very uncomfortable place to be.

We've created a hostile environment for LGBTQ students.

♪ VLASBLOM: We, as a district, received an A.C.L.U.

complaint that they had submitted to the Department of, the U.S.

Department of Ed and the Department of Justice.

It's accusing our school district and our teachers of not taking care of the LGBTQ community.

And allowing bullying.

The A.C.L.U.

gave the complaint to local media sources.

They reported on it.

That's how we in the district found out that there was an A.C.L.U.

complaint.

Turns out that Karen Smith was the person who called the OCR to cast aspersion on the district to get articles written about how incompetent the board was.

She is an awful board member who has caused more damage to this district than almost anybody else.

SMITH: The opposition called it "the million-dollar lie," that I cost the district a million dollars.

DEARMOND: There's been too much that's happened.

People's children have been harmed.

LEYGERMAN: Paul Martino does things that are completely unethical.

MAN: Liberal freaks like you... (people murmuring) Excuse me, it's my time.

(voices overlapping) MAN (on voicemail): You think you should be in charge of children?

You're an ignorant, psychologically weak, damaged waste of... Miss Piggy, fat (muted).

Worthless.

(voices stop) (people talking, music playing in background) DEARMOND: I don't think that most adults really know how to bridge the divide.

I think people are afraid to get into the conversation 'cause they see it as so divisive, so crazy.

And the thing, too, is, folks on my side of things, they're, they're fed up.

They're fed up with the name-calling.

They're fed up with the mischaracterization.

It's hard to be a conservative, period.

It's harder to be a conservative parent.

(exhales) Conservatives have repeatedly been painted in the media as extremists, even if they're moderate.

They have been called Nazis, fascists, um... It's that which shuts off all possible communication.

KITTY: How do I think the community gets back trust?

Both sides have to stop reading about each other and engage with each other.

But to be in each other's presence, using respectful language, letting go of name-calling and wild accusations, there is the possibility of listening.

DEARMOND: We gotta get out of our comfort zone sometimes, right?

Um... No, there's no change that's ever gonna happen if you stay in your comfort zone.

Well, Vonna and I have met before.

Um... I... (stammers, exhales) It began with, she asked a question at a school board meeting.

But then I had an opportunity at the next school board meeting to speak to her.

And I just went over and I had, got a big smile, and I said, "Do you think that we could ever, like, meet for a cup of coffee or something?"

And she, again, big smile, and said, "Yeah, let's do."

And if friendship is a Venn diagram, Vonna and I, I believe, have some nice overlap in the middle.

But there's a lot of stuff on either side where we don't agree.

And that stuff is a little scary in this world today.

Perhaps we could come to see each other, um, you know, not as enemies, you know?

'Cause I definitely feel that, you know, there is a sense that people look at each other as enemies.

And I certainly do see some that way, absolutely.

But based by their own behavior and the way they've treated me.

(doorbell rings) KITTY: Hi.

DEARMOND: Hi!

KITTY: Come on in.

DEARMOND: Thank you!

KITTY: Good to see you.

DEARMOND: You, too.

KITTY: How have you been?

DEARMOND: Thanks.

(door closes) Okay-- how have you been?

KITTY: Pretty good.

- Good.

Yeah.

- Hanging in there.

Cheers.

- Cheers.

Good to see you.

- To the conversation?

To the conversation, yeah.

- Yeah.

You, too.

- (chuckles) I didn't know what to expect for tonight.

You know, obviously, I don't know if you felt apprehensive.

You know, I... I really feel like I hear your sincerity.

I think you were probably a wonderful teacher.

You know?

I'm sure you were.

I would say, right?

The majority of teachers, everything is just fine.

They're doing what they should be doing.

But there are some.

There are stories that I know of that you may not know of.

Teachers should not be telling students what to think, how to believe, or making a student feel that their opinion is wrong.

And we have heard stories of a teacher who will not say President Trump's name... - That was... ...or will not allow someone to say that.

Mrs.

Cannon said that, and it turns out that was her child that it happened to.

I think that is evidence, if we keep kind of doing, "Oh, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, that doesn't count, that doesn't count," I will continue to reiterate how many people just stay silent.

I mean, as soon as I started speaking up, I have horrible things said about me.

Um, people you sit with have made comments, spreading hate, vitriol, horrible things, and they love it.

You know that the vitriol and the hateful language is on both sides.

I do.

And I, you know, I'm not responsible for what other people say... - No.

But there are certain things I'm not going to tolerate, and I disengage from those people.

I want to just pause for a second and ask you, would you like some cheese?

(both laugh) You know, did you see me eyeing up the cheese?

(sighs) You know, it's, it's rough, because, you know, we could talk about cheese... (laughs) - ...and our kids and, you know, like, there's nice things to talk about and then there's problematic things to talk about, and... I do think it's pretty special that we can talk at all.

Mm-hmm.

A lot of times I come home from these meetings and I feel inside out and backwards, you know?

I wanted to go back to... - Uh-huh.

...there is a group of teachers who are inappropriate or prosecute their viewpoint with students.

I think there are people who are in some sort of power over children who do like having that power over those children.

They are trying to indoctrinate, or they're trying to groom, or they're trying to win them in a way, right?

So it's, it's, um... "We must, we must get the, the young people to our side "so they can see how evil the other side is, "agree with us, become good Democrats that always vote the way we want."

I think that is happening, I think it's happening in Central Bucks, I think it's happening all over America, and I think there's proof of it.

I don't know, I mean, I guess we'll have to wait and see how this plays out nationally.

But what you are seeing as a nationwide effort to lead kids in a direction, I see change in the culture and kids rejecting a kind of rigid way of thinking that they don't... It doesn't match their experience of the world.

There is grooming happening.

I, I see things.

I look at the same terrain that you're looking at.

I don't see grooming.

I... - Something is happening, something is going on, and it's distressing, and it's, it's... Every alarm bell, as a parent, as a person who cares about children, it's going off.

Um, I understand, and again... We need to wrap this up.

Your vulnerability with me, and you're willing to just talk about stuff... Mm-hmm.

- ...is, is really welcome.

I, I applaud that.

I would love for us to have another opportunity to talk, because I enjoy this.

- Yes-- maybe we'll be less shy at the beginning next time!

(both laughing) Well, it is, yeah, I mean... It's always a little, like... - Yeah.

(breathes deeply): See you at the next board meeting.

I know, right?

(both laugh) KITTY: That wasn't easy for either one of us.

Um, it wasn't comfortable.

I felt that I did the best that I could.

But I didn't feel that I honored either of my roles, as, either as developing friend or as, stand up for my side particularly well.

I think there was, there was good discussion.

And I think I would like to have more of those kinds of discussion and maybe involve other people, as well.

I like her.

Um, I think that she's mistaken about many, many things.

But there's something... There's a, there's some overlap in our personalities and values.

I, I... I, I felt hopeful.

There's this feeling of... I don't want to say dread, it's not quite like that, but it's as if the good conversation and respect and relationship that Kitty and I have developed, what does it mean when it's just between she and I, and it doesn't translate to anybody else?

MAN: ♪ You have got to be taught ♪ To hate and fear ♪ Day after day ♪ And year after year VANESSA: You can do it.

♪ It's got to be drummed ♪ In your dear little ear ♪ You've got to be taught EVI: Watch your head there.

VANESSA: Watch your head.

♪ To hate and fear (Evi laughs) ♪ You have got to be taught VANESSA: We're a very angry country right now.

EVI: People are outraged, and it can get a little scary sometimes.

♪ You've got to be carefully taught ♪ VANESSA: Evi, if my mom wins the school board election, you'll still be my friend, right?

♪ ♪ The Central Bucks School District met tonight to discuss the findings of an internal investigation into allegations of discrimination.

The old stereotype, you know, don't make a federal case of it.

Well... PAUL: Well, she did!

It wasn't me-- it was their actions, their policies that were being investigated.

Now let's talk about book challenges.

Have you read any of them and what's your opinion about that?

Those one or two books should have been reviewed and removed!

This should never have been World War III!

Up next, the conversation turns toward school library policies.

I find myself so impressed with the students, their strength, and their openness to conversation.

As we watch the larger community undertake efforts to reach across the aisle, we'd like to ask, what can we all do to create more positive interactions with those who hold different beliefs?

Be part of this conversation.

Use #BucksCountyUSA and tag your local PBS station.

♪