Biden to boost Lentz at Radnor rally, but not at high school

Vice President Biden is to appear at a rally Wednesday morning in Radnor for congressional candidate Bryan Lentz - but not at Radnor High School, as the Lentz campaign had hoped.

And the war of words over why the school won't be hosting Biden continued for a second day.

Biden's appearance on Democrat Lentz's behalf is scheduled for 9 a.m. at the Radnor Sulpizio Gym, a building in downtown Wayne that is owned by the school district but leased by the township.

Lentz campaign staffers and Radnor school board member Brucie Rapoport continued to say Tuesday that the campaign had had an agreement with the district to hold the rally at the high school. The campaign announced Sunday that the school would host the event, and Secret Service officials had given the school grounds a once-over in preparation for the vice president's visit.

Rapoport said that an e-mail on Friday from Greg McNicholas, school board president, told other board members of the rally, and a written update the same day from the Radnor School District superintendent, Linda Grobman, said the rally had been "scheduled" at Radnor High.

Rapoport said she believed Grobman had backed down because of calls and e-mails opposing the rally site after it was announced. "The decision was influenced by a few zealots who are rabid and threaten," Rapoport contended. She added: "It shouldn't be a partisan issue; it should be looked at as a civics lesson. . . . Our students are the ones who are losing here."

Grobman, who announced Monday that the district had decided not to hold the event at the school, said Tuesday that no plans had been finalized during discussions with the Lentz campaign and that as their plans for the rally emerged, logistics "became much more of a concern."

Grobman said she learned that the rally "was getting much larger and would interfere with the school program. . . . The amount of time that it would disrupt the building grew exponentially."

She said that she had heard objections from people in the district, but that complaints played no role in the decision.

Grobman added that holding the rally elsewhere in the township was a "win-win" and that students whose parents gave them permission to attend would get an excused absence from school.

McNicholas did not return a phone call seeking comment. In an interview Monday, he said that holding the rally at the high school would have been "too disruptive and not the right setting - using the high school as a campaign stop."

In downtown Wayne on Tuesday, opinions varied about the rally flap.

Diana Rapp, a junior at Radnor High, said: "I think it would have been really cool to hear him. They did it before [when Hillary Rodham Clinton came to the school in 2008]; there should be no problem with doing it again."

Leigh Nye, a Radnor High freshman, said, she, too, thought it would be "kind of cool," but added that "if it's just Democrats, it's not such a good idea. It will make people upset."

Kathleen Seaton, mother of a Radnor High senior, said: "I'm profoundly disappointed that my child has missed the opportunity to see and hear" Biden.