Cumberland Valley school director resigns over ‘30 Rock’ actor being allowed to speak to students
Share this post:
Cumberland Valley School director Brian Drapp has resigned his school board seat over the district’s handling of a middle school assembly featuring author/actor Maulik Pancholy.
But in an interview Tuesday with PennLive, he said that issue is really a symptom of deeper problems with the board’s operation.
“I believe you have a board president that’s basically just rubber-stamping anything the superintendent wants, and not consulting with the board,” Drapp said, adding that for him, “enough is enough.”
Drapp — who was initially elected to the board from Silver Spring Township in 2017 and is in the midst of a second four-term running through 2025 — announced his resignation Monday in a letter to district officials.
He had opposed Pancholy’s appearance at Mountain View Middle School when board colleague Bud Shaffner initially called for canceling it. Shaffner said at that meeting on April 15 he was concerned, among other things, about giving a self-described political activist a platform to potentially promote a gay lifestyle on middle school kids.
Drapp never jumped into the discussion about Pancholy’s sexual orientation.
But he did support the cancellation in keeping with the district’s informal policy of steering clear of any partisan political events, adopted after a Donald Trump rally was booked at the high school in 2016.
“We made a conscious decision years ago after the President Trump rally that was here caused so much stuff that we would never get involved in that on either side of the political spectrum,” Drapp said after Shaffner made his original motion, which passed on an 8-0 vote. “I think this falls under that.”
In his resignation letter, Drapp said he couldn’t get past those objections after the board’s 5-4 vote on April 24, after tremendous public pushback on the cancellation, to reschedule Pancholy’s appearance.
“I voted twice against a political activist speaking to our middle school students,” Drapp wrote.
“I am very uncomfortable with assembling 12-, 13- and 14-year-old students to listen to someone who supports violent protests and the organization he co-founded overtly advocating “in order to change the structure of our current education, legal and policing system, many find it necessary to upend the current system by any means necessary.”
Drapp’s reference there appeared to be to the “Racism is a Virus” toolkit on the Web site of “Act to Change,” a nonprofit Pancholy helped start and still chairs that works to end bullying of Asian-American and Pacific Islanders.
The toolkit — not authored by Pancholy — provides some tips for anyone on how to protest safely but does not appear to advocate for violent protest.
Pancholy, 48, is perhaps best known to some for playing Jonathan, the harried executive assistant in the old NBC sitcom hit “30 Rock.” More recently, he has appeared in the Hulu comedy “Only Murders in the Building.”
But he has also become an in-demand speaker in recent years, after writing two highly-regarded novels featuring middle school-age protagonists.
Pancholy’s assembly message at Mountain View Middle School will be about finding your voice, trying to fit in, and how to handle it if you don’t, according to Erin Corvaia, a Mountain View mom who also happens to be Pancholy’s sister-in-law.
Pancholy came out as gay in 2013. Here’s what Pancholy lists most prominently as his activism on his website.
Drapp, in his letter and again on Tuesday, also expressed his disgust with the packed special meeting at which the board narrowly rescinded the initial cancellation vote. There, he and other speakers were met with real-time interactive feedback ranging from boos and whistles to standing ovations.
“By allowing adults, students and teachers to disrupt, disrespect and silence any differing points of views, and overtly ignoring rules and common decency norms, our silence and non-responsiveness have signaled to our students this type of behavior and actions are acceptable,” Drapp wrote.
Amplifying that concern on Tuesday, Drapp asked, “What if the same type of behavior comes into our buildings or the classrooms? Is this now acceptable? Because we did nothing to stop it.”
Drapp’s resignation was accepted by his former colleagues Monday night, with a note thanks to Drapp “for his years of dedication to the district and for his time on the board and its various committees.”
District spokeswoman Tracy Panzer said the board will start to work on filling the open seat by seeking letters of interest from eligible Silver Spring Township residents in the coming days.