How a N.J. school district landed in controversy over Respect Week posters

A South Jersey school district has landed in a national debate on health education after a parent’s social media post complained about a poster displayed at an elementary school for Respect Week that used the word polysexual.

Students at Upper Elementary School in North Hanover Township in Burlington County were asked to create posters to show that their school was a “safe place where everyone was accepted,” said Superintendent Helen Payne. The voluntary activity has been held for three years and there was no instruction associated with the assignment, she said.

Some students made posters reflecting the school’s diversity, some had messages about general acceptance and kindness, and some included content supporting the LGBTQ community, Payne said. Some posters included pride flags for transsexual, pansexual, and polysexual groups and “messages that all people were accepted at their school,” she said.

In a Facebook post that went viral, parent Angela Reading said she was disturbed to see the posters when she visited the school with her 7-year-old daughter for Math Night. Reading, a school board member for the Northern Burlington Regional High School district, said the posters were inappropriate.

“I was livid,” Reading wrote in the post. “Why are elementary schools promoting/allowing elementary KIDS to research topics of sexuality and create posters?”

The debate escalated after another parent, Lt. Col. Chris Schilling, who is assigned to nearby Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, responded to her post and said it had been flagged to local police because of safety concerns. Reading said she removed the post after an administrator of the Facebook group told her that North Hanover Police Chief Robert Duff reached out urging her to take it down.

In a statement, a spokesperson for base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst said Schilling’s opinions were posted on a personal account unaffiliated with the military. “The base has no role in investigating this situation and any information or concerns received from the public were passed onto the local civilian law enforcement responsible for jurisdiction.”

Reading’s story was reported on the “Chaos and Control” Substack page and later picked up by Fox News host Tucker Carlson. During an appearance on his show Wednesday night, Reading said she found the involvement by a military official “mind-boggling” and that she had pulled her children from school when she learned that police had been notified.

Since then, there have been petitions calling for Schilling’s ouster from the military, as well as demands for Reading to resign from the school board. In a letter to her school board Wednesday, Reading wrote she was stepping down, effective immediately.

“Over the past year, it has become clear to me that board members are not afforded their freedom of speech or the God-given right to have an opinion that may be different from others, due to the real and perceived harassment, intimidation, and bullying of a group of small-minded individuals in and around our community.”

Payne sent a letter to parents on Dec. 1 which she said outlines “the facts of the situation.” She sought to dispel misperceptions that the posters were part of the curriculum. Some parents have objected to new state health education requirements that include lessons discussing gender identity, puberty, and types of sexual intercourse.

Payne noted that students are exposed to information outside of school, and the posters reflect information important to them. Schools are operating normally and police are monitoring the situation, she said.

“This has been a difficult time for our community,” Payne said Friday in an email to The Inquirer.