'I'm coming for you': Central Bucks superintendent comment sounds like threat to some

A comment from Central Bucks School District’s top administrator came off to some as a promise to protect children and to others as a threat against dissenting views at the start of a contentious school board meeting Tuesday night.

As Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh gave his official report, he again doubled down on a decision earlier this year to remove two books from school libraries over their alleged “gratuitous graphic age-inappropriate sexualized content.”

One young adult, LGBTQ sex education book, Juno Dawson’s “This Book is Gay,” allegedly “teaches students … directions and suggestions for using hookup apps like Grindr and others to facilitate sexual encounters,” Lucabaugh said.

Lucabaugh added that “these sex apps” were used by former teacher, Michael London, who is facing charges for corruption of a minor stemming from an internal investigation Lucabaugh led.

This was the strongest public statement Lucabaugh has made since London was charged and the policy approved.

Lucabaugh on Tuesday was initially commenting on a programming plan for students designed to teach “the importance of setting and respecting personal boundaries … with peers and adults” which veered into a defense of the district’s controversial library policy passed last year.

He drew more criticism from a crowd largely already attending to speak out against a $90,000 raise proposed for Lucabaugh, which was approved at the end of the meeting.

More: Central Bucks considers $90K raise for Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh. Here's the new salary

"Now, recently a book in our libraries that teaches students, among other things, directions and suggestions for using hookup apps like Grindr and others to facilitate sexual encounters was deemed inappropriate by our committee and it was removed from our shelves. And there was opposition to the district ... Given that the most recent occurrence of employee misconduct in our district involved the use of one of these sex apps to contact students, I find it inconceivable that anybody would support the existence of this content in our libraries.

"There is absolutely no reason for anyone to engage students in conversations about their sexual habits, their sexual preferences, or their sexual orientation, and if you think it's acceptable, this is your notice I'm going to come for you," Lucabaugh said.

More than 30 people came to speak at Tuesday's meeting, most signing up to discuss the proposed raise, and several said they felt Lucabaugh's statement was a warning to dissenting opinions.

Michael Stadelmaier, a 16-year Buckingham resident, questioned Lucabaugh’s proposed $315,000 salary when Gov. Josh Shapiro makes a $230,000 salary to hold the state’s highest executive office.

Although he was against the raise earlier, Stadelmaier said he found Lucabaugh’s comments about books more troubling.

“One thing that did make me angry was when the superintendent said that he’s going to ‘come for me,’ that he’s going to come for me because of some point of view I might have … I mean, that’s the talk of a bully. … I really don’t want a bully as superintendent,” Stadelmaier said.

Gail Hutchings, who graduated from Central Bucks High School West in 2019, said the divisiveness in the district since she graduated was known even to her fellow Arizona State University students before recently graduating with degrees in science and forensic psychology.

“I think it is absurd that people think it is OK to say that you are going to ‘come for me’ … I think that is incredibly unprofessional and, as a first-year law student, I would probably be severely talked to about that,” Hutchings said.

Hutchings added that a hyperfocus on “sexualization” in schools didn’t represent her experience as a former student and the district would rather ban books than have honest conversation with students.

“Reading a single book in a library is not going to stop a student who has access to the internet … people were talking about sex by the time I graduated sixth grade,” Hutchings said.

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Plumstead parent Chris Evans, who also opposed Lucabaugh’s raise, said others were right to call out the superintendent's comments as a threat and he hoped his children did read books like the one the district banned.

“I knew there were some books growing up that had some questionable content and I was way too lazy to read them,” Evans joked.

“My son loves to read. If he came home with one of these books and he read some of this content, I would just hope it would conjure up a conversation with me to talk about a serious topic and I can be a real parent and do things that my parents didn’t do for me,” Evans said.

New Britain Township resident Tricia Doebler, an ardent supporter of the district against its harshest critics, criticized the vocal majority who spoke out against Lucabaugh with “buzzwords” who ignored his efforts to “protect children from sexualization in schools.”

“You've said publicly that you are here to protect all kids and protect them from sexualization in schools and tonight you said that you're coming for anybody else that wants to harm our kids. Thank you,” Doebler said.

“Had it not been for you conducting your own investigation when the (District Attorney) failed miserably, we may still have a threat in our schools … but no one wants to talk about that,” Doebler added.

Initially, the district attorney did not charge London. Further investigation by the district led to charges.

Another Lucabaugh supporter, Plumstead resident Vonna DeArmond, said his statement, which others described as a threat, was a warning to potential sexual abusers.

“I understood Dr. Lucabaugh’s comment … he’s talking about anybody working in the school who would be a predator, who would try to harm children in that manner,” DeArmond said.

What’s in Central Bucks superintendent’s new contract?

Despite the 90-minute public comment session that largely opposed the measure, the school board voted 6-3 at the end of the night approving a new contract for Lucabaugh.

Board President Dana Hunter, Vice President Leigh Vlasblom and members Debra Cannon, Sharon Collopy, Jim Pepper, and Lisa Sciscio voted in favor of the raise, some citing an apparent risk of losing Lucabaugh to other districts.

Board members Karen Smith, Tabitha Dell’Angelo and Dr. Mariam Mahmud opposed, saying they were left out of any meaningful discussion prior to the vote and the raise came after a “difficult” budget process that ended in a 2.75% property tax increase last month.

The new five-year, $315,000 contract appeared as an agenda item for the July 25 meeting, published sometime early Monday morning on the district’s website.

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Lucabaugh was officially hired to replace former head administrator John Kopicki in August 2021 at $225,000 with a performance-based raise of at least 2% for the first two years of that five-year contract.

Under his new contract, Lucabaugh could see a bump of at least 2.5% of his base pay for the first two years and at least 3% over the next three years — potentially ending his contract with a $361,635 salary in 2028.

Lucabaugh would also see a 5% contribution into his retirement fund each year, totally about $83,000 with the assumed minimum salary increases.

The district will also give Lucabaugh 25 days in vacation time each year, paying a per diem rate of up to 15 days for any unused vacation days at the end of each year.

The contract also gives Lucabaugh 15 days of sick leave each year, which will accrue annually if unused. The district would also pay the “cash value for his unused sick leave based on the rate of 1/260th of his then current annual salary for each day of unused accumulated sick leave not to exceed one year” if his contract is terminated for any reason.

Lucabaugh will also get up to 11 days in bereavement time under his new contract.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Central Bucks residents call superintendent's comments a threat