Lehighton board rebukes Bradley for ‘vulgar language, lack of respect

Lehighton Area School District formally reprimanded one of its own board members Monday night for what it termed “abuse of the district’s email account.”

According to a motion read by board President Larry Stern, the reprimand was for director David Bradley Sr.

“The reprimand is for continually using vulgar language, showing a general lack of respect while addressing board members, the superintendent, legal counsel and the Pennsylvania School Board Association’s legal counsel,” Stern said. “He uses emails to debate legal issues which incurs a cost to the district. He uses nicknames for our superintendent, PSBA officials, legal counsel and others. His non-fact-based accusations and innuendos are contained in those emails circulated amongst the board. PSBA has blocked his Lehighton.org email address, which is tied to the district. The abuse has shone a negative light on our community and district.”

The motion passed 9-0, including a yes vote from Bradley himself.

Asked about the reprimand in an email Tuesday, Bradley said, “My passion for saving hardworking taxpayers’ money has resulted in conduct that the board may have felt was outside their normal procedure.

“As time has passed, my skills as an advocate have improved,” he said. “My consistent focus is pursuing the goals of quality education for all our children, transparency in the district and helping this board be better stewards of taxpayer money.”

Drug talk objections

Before the vote, a number of speakers paraded to the podium for comment, including Tim Tkach, Lehighton’s assistant to the superintendent, who read an email urging the district to add more programs featuring more business people in the community. The email also criticized some past Lehighton drug and alcohol assemblies.

“My children have attended assemblies where ex-drug dealers and old addicts share the old glory to the rehab story,” Tkach read from the email, which Bradley later admitted to writing.

“I find this offensive and ridiculous to give these misfits money for access to our children. The overall message can easily be misinterpreted by young minds. It idolizes their lifestyle before their inevitable fall. We have so many good successful people and job creators in our region. These role models need to be tapped.”

Tkach followed up by listing the career fairs, women’s symposiums and other programs Lehighton has either sponsored or been a part of over the years.

“Once again, you are misinformed,” Tkach said to Bradley.

Following the comments, Bradley said he felt the message of his email was being mischaracterized.

“There are other programs to help students and end this mess that this state is in,” he said. “We should all recognize the opportunity to have mentors in our schools who have been successful in their lives and invest in our children.”

Resident Tom Wertman said his grandson is now in prison and would have likely benefited from the drug and alcohol programs in Lehighton.

“I only wish he heard some of the speakers at our drug and alcohol assemblies,” Wertman said. “This is a wonderful program we have and our students can reach out to these kids who went through it.”

Now an elementary school teacher in the district, Patti Ebbert is a retired state police communications officer. She also extolled the virtues of the drug and alcohol programs on Monday.

“If you even could fathom how many times I had to sit in that barracks and watch a parent walk in crying hysterically because we had to tell them their child overdosed, you couldn’t imagine the pain those parents went through,” Ebbert said. “To have that type of program given to our kids from the get-go and not have another parent go through what those parents have seen is awesome.”

A different email, resident Autumn Frey said was sent to board member Wayne Wentz on Christmas Eve 2015 referred to Wentz as “wimpy and pathetic” and said “the world would be better off without you.”

In an email on Tuesday, Bradley was asked if he wrote the email to Wentz. He did not respond to that question.

Contact with solicitor addressed

In separate votes Monday night, the board directed the district’s legal counsel, William Schwab, to “refrain from responding to an individual board member’s requests for legal services which would incur a fee absent a board majority vote,” and directed the school’s administration and Schwab to refer board members to the proper channels for responding to any information requests.

Schwab expressed his frustration with what he called “excessive” information requests from Bradley.

“I received 23 requests on a Thursday, including what does kidnapping mean,” Schwab said during Monday’s meeting. “I thought that was excessive. I was sent an email requesting information right before 11 p.m. on a Saturday night. I believe that is excessive. I don’t believe I have the duty or the responsibility to respond to individual board members. If the majority of the board wants me to do something, I’ll be happy to do it. When an individual board member sends out five or six emails a day that this board is getting billed for, that is excessive.”

Bradley said he viewed the action as “a way to limit a board member’s ability to ask for information.

“The fact that I use individual emails for each subject makes it easier to respond to,” Bradley said. “Restricting an individual board member’s access to information is counterproductive to open board meetings.”

The motions passed despite no votes from Bradley, Joy Beers and Gail Maholick. Beers said the actions “seemed to be reactionary to some type of behavior in the past.”