Souderton school board to check IDs as residents continue to call for Bill Formica to resign because of social media posts

People attending the Souderton school board’s meeting Thursday night will be asked to show identification, as the board continues to face backlash over member Bill Formica’s social media posts.

District officials say the plan to check IDs is meant to ensure that residents are prioritized for entry following a school board meeting last month that drew hundreds of people, many demanding Formica’s resignation in the wake of his comments that Vice President Kamala Harris “blew a lot of dudes.”

Unlike that meeting, which was moved to a middle school auditorium that could hold 550 people, Thursday’s will be held at the board’s usual meeting location in the district’s administrative office building, with a 110-person capacity.

“They are intentionally trying to suppress public participation,” said Stephanie Jamison, chair of Souderton Area for All, a community group that supports diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. “I’m sensing they’re really uncomfortable with this level of criticism.”

Formica has defied the calls for his resignation over his comments about Harris, which he said he made impulsively on X while responding to another user asking people to “name ONE thing this chick has accomplished, politically.”

But critics have pointed out a history of inflammatory comments by Formica, a Republican appointed to the board last year and elected in November — including others targeting teachers, non-English speakers, and LGBTQ people.

The Republican-controlled board’s president, Ken Keith, said at last month’s meeting that the district “does not condone” Formica’s comments. But the board has not urged him to resign, as opponents contend it should.

Keith did not respond to questions Wednesday about the new ID practice and criticism of the board.

Jeffrey Sultanik, the district’s solicitor, said the board was not seeking to turn away nonresidents.

“The intention is just to give priority seating to residents first, and employees, and the press,” Sultanik said Wednesday. He said the board had the authority to prioritize residents under a provision in Pennsylvania’s school code that gives school districts power over the reasonable use of their facilities.

Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, disagreed with that interpretation. While the Sunshine Act allows school boards to limit public comment to residents and taxpayers, it doesn’t say boards can restrict attendance at public meetings to residents, she said.

“If they’re going to prioritize some, that may mean exclusion for others, and there’s nothing that justifies that under the law,” Melewsky said.

If the district is concerned there won’t be enough space for everyone who wants to attend, Melewsky said, “the most obvious remedy for that is go to a bigger room.”

Sultanik said it was “logistically easier” for the board to run its meetings out of its typical room. He also said the board “believes that the need for a larger size venue has been lessened,” because it’s been receiving fewer emails in the wake of the Formica uproar.

The board checked IDs at a recent committee meeting, and there was “no one from the public or region who was denied access,” Sultanik said.

Jamison, who attended that meeting, said she saw some people leave because they didn’t have IDs on them, which concerned her. The district does not appear to have publicized the new requirement, she said.

There are also reasons for nonresidents, like advocacy groups or potential contractors or vendors, to attend board meetings, she said.

Jamison questioned whether the impetus for the ID requirement stemmed from an “online rumor” by a local conservative activist who alleged that Antifa had attended the last school board meeting — citing out-of-state license plates in the school parking lot.

The activist, Kaitlin Derstine, declined to comment Wednesday on whether she made that assertion. “The meetings are open to the public,” Derstine said in an email. “The school district is just making sure residents and taxpayers of the district get first seats.”

Jamison said she was aware of some people who did not intend to comply with the ID requirement, and said she was “deeply concerned” about potential conflict at Thursday’s meeting, which is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.