After a Saucon Valley School Board member suggested establishing a Charlie Kirk Recognition Day, a working group is considering how best to condemn political violence and respond to passionate feelings in their politically divided community.

The working group consists of two board members, two community members and two teachers, and its ideological differences have made it difficult to reach agreement on what, if any, action to take.

“We’re trying to develop a kind of fragile consensus on how to deal with this kind of divisive issue,” board member Bill Broun said.

Board member John Conte originated the idea of a districtwide Charlie Kirk Recognition Day at the Sept. 23 board meeting, saying: “I think it’d be a good reminder for the students of what he meant to the country and to our political system.”

Broun backed up Conte, noting a strong desire in the community to honor the slain conservative political activist. A Sept. 22 vigil in Hellertown drew hundreds of people.

“I wouldn’t have agreed with Charlie Kirk on almost anything, but I’ve certainly respected his contribution to discourse between different perspectives in a free and nonviolent way,” Broun said at the meeting. “It enriches our society.”

Now Broun and Conte are part of a working group that is split ideologically, and Broun said there’s been little consensus beyond a desire to reject political violence.

The group is scheduled to provide an update to the board at its Oct. 14 meeting, but there is nothing on the agenda yet, and Broun said he’s not sure if the group will reach enough of a consensus to propose concrete action.

That tentativeness comes from a desire to respect the passionate feelings of the community and to acknowledge that both Kirk’s assassination and the backlash against Kirk’s critics have generated anger.

“We’re deep purple here,” Broun said. “We’re a bellwether community in a bellwether county. We have to find a way to get along.”

The intent was never to intrude on curriculum, Broun noted, saying any action would likely take the form of a public acknowledgement of the harms of political violence.

Such an acknowledgement would need to extend beyond recognizing Kirk to take into account other recent acts of political violence, including the killing of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman, the attack on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence and the assassination attempts against President Donald Trump, Broun said.

Although Broun said he’d rather be talking about linear algebra or “King Lear,” he said the board has a responsibility to address current events.

“Sometimes these cultural issues are kind of thrust upon you, and it’s not right to just pretend they don’t exist,” Broun said.

Board member Jay Santos expressed skepticism at the Sept. 23 meeting, saying he had reservations about the board getting involved in any of the rhetoric surrounding Kirk.

“Our mandate is to educate students and to do right by the community; as school board members, that’s what we’re primarily there for,” Santos said in a follow-up interview. “I don’t believe it’s our area to put our thumb on the political scale, and I think that we should stay in our lane in terms of what our mandate is.”

District Solicitor Mark Fitzgerald said at the Sept. 23 meeting that recognizing a public figure might be allowable but that if the district were to “go any deeper in terms of requirements of staff or students to participate in any sort of day, I think it will get a little bit more complicated as to what that would look like.”

Other local school boards have confronted community anger in the aftermath of Kirk’s death, with the most intense backlash coming in the Easton Area School District where a school nurse’s social media comments led to calls for her firing.

School nurse’s condemnation of Charlie Kirk sparks fierce backlash against Easton Area School Board

Political controversies are not new to the Saucon Valley School District, Broun said, expressing a desire to proceed carefully.

“We’ve had a history in the community of sometimes jumping to conclusions with the culture wars and honestly it’s cost us,” Broun said.

https://www.mcall.com/2025/10/03/saucon-valley-school-board-charlie-kirk-recognition-day/