At a press conference to announce the formation of a coalition to fight back against book bans and bathroom and athletic policies targeting transgender students, speaker after speaker referred to Central York School District as ground zero.
Central was at the vanguard of the movement to ban books, an effort that led in last fall’s election to voters in the district electing a slate of board members inspired by resisting efforts to ban books.
“We’re hoping it will never happen in our district again,” Tristan Doud, a senior at Central York High School and co-president of the school’s Panther Anti-Racist Union, said during the press conference Tuesday afternoon.
To that end, Tristan and others involved in resisting efforts to remove books from school libraries, restrict sports and bathrooms for transgender students and to protect LGBTQ students from harassment and bullying have joined to form Pennsylvanians for Welcoming and Inclusive Schools, going by the acronym PAWInS, an organization dedicated to helping parents and students fight against what the group describes as an “extremist” takeover of public schools.