Ten Cumberland Valley School District have expressed “disappointment” after the school board’s unanimous vote to disinvite actor Maulik Pancholy, who is openly gay, from an anti-bullying assembly due to his activism and “lifestyle.”
On Monday, April 15, the Pennsylvania school district’s board unanimously voted to cancel the former 30 Rock star’s speaking engagement at Mountain View Middle School in Mechanicsburg, Penn. Pancholy, who was scheduled to speak to students on May 22, portrayed Alec Baldwin’s devoted assistant in the sitcom and currently delivers keynote speeches about diversity and inclusion.
Following the school board’s vote, the district’s superintendent, Mark Blanchard, and nine other administrators wrote a letter obtained by PEOPLE to express their “disappointment” in the vote.
“The Board made a decision that has had significant ramifications for our school community, especially for our students and staff who are members of the LGBTQ+ community,” read the letter, dated Thursday, April 18. “While the issue of ‘political activism’ was cited, statements made publicly by individual board members identified Mr. Pancholy’s sexual identity as a factor, an identity shared by many members of our school community.”
The letter continued to condemn the board’s actions, alleging that the members “reduced” Pancholy’s “personhood” to “a single aspect,” adding how the vote “discredited” the speaker’s “ability to communicate a message of anti-bullying and hate.”
The statement also noted that because Mountain View Middle School is a public school, officials have a responsibility “to serve the entire community” and “protect those who sit under our umbrella of influence.”
“No one should be made to feel that who they are is less than anyone else,” read the statement. “Mr. Pancholy’s visit would have reinforced for our students the importance of treating all people with dignity and respect, even if we disagree with or do not understand something about them.”
As the letter concluded, the 10 board officials reiterated that they believed Pancholy, 50, should not have been disinvited: “We believe that Mr. Pancholy’s assembly should have been allowed to happen and that all of our staff and students should be proud to be part of a school community that values who they are.”
Pancholy also expressed his gratitude for the Mountain View Middle School community’s “outpouring of solidarity, love, and support from the community” in a statement he shared via Instagram on Thursday, April 18.
“When I visit schools, my ‘activism’ is to let all young people know that they’re seen. To let them know that they matter. When I talk about the characters in my books feeling ‘different,’ I’m always surprised by how many young people raise their hands – regardless of their identities and backgrounds – wanting to share about the ways in which they, too, feel different,” he wrote.
View this post on Instagram
