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The newly appointed school board president in Pennsylvania’s third-largest school district was sworn in this week on a stack of frequently banned books.
Incumbent Karen Smith was one of five Democrats who defeated Republican candidates endorsed by national anti-LGBTQ+ group Moms for Liberty in last month’s Central Bucks School Board elections, flipping the board from a 6–3 Republican majority to a 6–3 Democratic majority. Together, the five Democrats ran as the Neighbors United for School Board slate of candidates and opposed the previous Republican majority’s “book banning, anti-LGBTQA+ policies, and ‘culture war’ politics.”
On Monday night, Smith was sworn in for her third term and was also chosen as the board’s new president. When she took her oath of office, she placed her hand on a stack of six books that have been challenged or banned in school districts across the country, rather than the Bible. Four of the books centered on LGBTQ+ characters and themes.
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