A nine-member school board in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania voted for a new president of the board last week. Two of the nine were running to be the new president. One was a “cis, white male” and the other a female. One board member gave her reason for voting for the female candidate instead of the male candidate – it would “send the wrong message to our community.” She said the quiet part out loud.

I find it disgusting that we have come to this place in our society. A person is chosen for their gender, or their skin color instead of basic qualifications. This is blatant discrimination and it’s got to stop. Is this what the Civil Rights movement was about – punish a person for his skin color or his sexuality if the person isn’t the best show of diversity? What happened to Martin Luther King’s words about judging someone for the content of his character, not the color of his skin?

In this case I think the biggest disqualifying maker for Gregory D’Elia wasn’t his skin color or sexuality but his gender. He was the only cis, white male on the board. Ironically his presence was the very definition of diversity on the board. The others, apparently, are either female or perhaps the male seen in the video is not cisgender. The four board members I watched in a video clip are a male and what appear to be three white women. The name plate in front of the male does not identify him as D’Elia.

“I believe that Mr. D’Elia would make an excellent president,” Upper Moreland School Board member Jennifer Solot said during the vote on Tuesday in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. “However, I feel that electing the only cis, white male president of this district sends the wrong message to our community — a message that is contrary to what we as a board have been trying to accomplish.”

She added: “I think it’s important that we practice what we preach and that our words have strength when they are spoken, whether we speak them from the neighborhood sidewalks or from behind these tables.”

Solot closed her remarks by expressing support for school board member April Stainback. Of the nine board members, Stainback and D’Elia were the only two people nominated for board president.

🚨 @UpperMorelandSD Board member, Jennifer Solot, says she is against electing the only, “cis white male on this board,” as president of the district because it, “sends the wrong message to our community.”

Wow. Saying the quiet part out loud. pic.twitter.com/stEMoeUExS

— Megan Brock (@MegEBrock) December 10, 2022

The member leading the charge to avoid voting for him, though she admits he would be “an excellent president”, then seems to have struck a nerve with other members who were too spineless to go against her. They knew it wasn’t right to discriminate against him but they went along. What sheep.

After Solot’s remarks and during the vote, school board member Sarah Byrnes hesitated and said, “This is very hard to do as the new person on the board.”

Byrnes then conceded that she would vote for Stainback. Rose Huber also hesitated, but after a long pause, she also voted for Stainback. In the 8-1 vote, D’Elia was the only one to vote for himself.

They all fell in line. Liberal groupthink wins again. D’Elia only received his own vote.

D’Elia has an impressive resume. He attended Penn State and received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He holds four patents. He “headed design and installation of guy lines on the new One World Trade Center.” He has three children. D’Elia decided to run for the school board because one of his children has special needs and his focus is on access to special services for students.

But, he’s white and he’s a straight man so he’s just not the right person for the job. Good Lord. The pendulum keeps swinging the other way, now to the extent of ridiculousness. And the female school board member delivers her reasoning without qualm. She acts as though hers is the right opinion. This is where we are. It’s ok to discriminate against some people but not others. And it’s ok to just say it out loud in a public meeting. No one was criticizing her for saying what she did.

Upper Moreland School District is in the northern suburbs of Philadelphia. Jennifer Solot is the School Board Treasurer. The most disturbing part, to me, besides Solot’s diatribe, was that at least two other members hesitated but then voted with Solot. Each should have listened to their conscience.