PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Central Bucks School Board voted Tuesday to hire attorneys to help the district navigate a complaint filed against it by the ACLU of Pennsylvania, which conducted an investigation and found a toxic environment for LGBTQ students throughout the district.
The firm that will be paid by the district is Duane Morris. One of its partners, Bill McSwain, was the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He also unsuccessfully ran for the Republican ticket for governor this past election.
Three board members voted against hiring legal counsel, arguing McSwain is a controversial choice.
“The motion on the table is to higher a firm and be represented by someone who is unapologetically partisan and has been very vocal in their support for the very kinds of policies that we’re supposed to be reflective about,” a board member said during the meeting.
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McSwain was appointed as a federal prosecutor by former President Donald Trump during his administration.
Back in March, he criticized a sign at Fugett Middle School in West Chester, which invited students to a Gender-Sexuality Alliance club, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. In a since-deleted Facebook post, McSwain said the sign was an example of “leftist political indoctrination.”
McSwain also represented the Boy Scouts of America against the City of Philadelphia in 2008, a suit centered on a BSA policy that excluded gay children and adults. Based on the city’s anti-discrimination ordinances, the city decided to stop subsidizing the local BSA chapter and tried to evict them from their city-owned headquarters.
As reported by the Bucks County Courier Times, the Scouts building was originally bought and paid for by the BSA but later turned over to the city under the condition they could use it rent-free.
The city’s ordinances ultimately differed with a prior U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld the BSA’s gay policy, and the Scouts won the case, the Courier Times reported. The BSA, however, rescinded its gay ban nationwide in 2013.
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The Central Bucks School Board has recently come under fire for introducing changes to a policy that would ban Pride flags and other decorations in the classroom related to gender identity. The policy, along with others related to preferred names and pronouns, is included in the ACLU complaint.
The motion passed 6-3.