A Pennsylvania high school will reportedly begin the process of suspending and expelling a Moms for Liberty member more than a year after the group's 15-year-old daughter reported finding a threatening note on her desk. Federalist.
The decision to discipline the girl, whose name is not being released because she is a minor, came at the same time as a tense school board meeting, said her mother, Tricia Plank. The meeting is at least partly tied to an ongoing Mothers for Liberty lawsuit that is trying to block the Biden-Harris administration's proposed Title IX rule changes that would allow boys to participate in girls' sports.
The Plank family is mentioned in Moms for Liberty's complaint.
“If those in power truly believed these children were a threat, they should not have waited 15 months to press charges.”
“Currently, Ms. Plank's children have expressed their views on gender identity and transgender issues at school. To date, the children have been monitored by teachers and school administrators, but have not been reprimanded or disciplined for their comments,” the May court filing stated.
In February 2023, the then 13-year-old girl discovered the words “I'm going to blow up this school” written in pencil on her desk. The desk also had the word “gun” written on it, with an arrow pointing to the word “death,” The Federalist reported.
According to a police timeline based on surveillance camera footage, the teenager, the last of three students to use the desk during class, reported the threatening graffiti seven minutes after arriving in the classroom.
“I didn't realize it was on my desk until the teacher finished her talk and asked me to clean up,” she told The Federalist. “I cleared my desk of binders and stuff, and then I saw it and raised my hand and told the teacher.”
She further noted that the message was in cursive, which she could not have written herself, and that she was not given the option to learn cursive in her class.
The principal and vice principal questioned two other students who had also used the desk, and both said they had not seen the graffiti earlier in the day. The Planks said the teen who reported the graffiti was not questioned.
Police concluded that it was the Planks' daughter who wrote down the threatening notes and then made the decision to report her misconduct, The Federalist reported, but the incident and the looming threats of retaliation for the alleged crime ultimately seemed to quieten down for the remainder of her eighth-grade year.
She then enrolled in high school and participated in tennis and track and field. Her father, Philip Plank, has been her tennis coach since she was a little girl. She has previously won the title of county champion.
But a week after Moms for Liberty filed suit to block the Title IX changes, the school suddenly resurrected the threatening graffiti incident.
The Plancks' daughter, whose handwriting analysis showed she “was capable of writing this text,” is now facing charges of terroristic threatening and subversive activity within the juvenile justice system.
Seventy-two weeks after the incident, in the middle of the summer before her daughter's sophomore year of high school, the principal called the Planks and told them the school was moving forward with plans to suspend and expel their daughter.
Tricia Plank, who joined the school board in December 2023, asked to meet with the superintendent to postpone the suspension until after the tennis season so as not to negatively impact her daughter's college prospects. The superintendent agreed to suspend the suspension so her daughter could participate in tennis.
In August, the school board met and a contentious discussion ensued regarding sexually explicit material in school libraries. Both Tricia Plank and the superintendent were present at the meeting but spoke out against the issue.
The next day, the school's lawyer contacted the Planks' lawyer, Paul B. Royer, and informed him that the school intended to proceed with suspending and expelling their daughter and ban her from playing tennis.
The Plancks called it “serendipitous timing.”
Just days before the girl discovered the graffiti on her desk, her sister had been charged in a similar, unrelated incident. The girl, who was 11 at the time, was reportedly in a school bathroom with several other students. A bomb threat was written on the wall, but no one saw who copied it. The girl faces similar charges from police and the school in the incident.
“My clients are representing themselves and waiting for both the juvenile justice system and the school disciplinary process to play out,” Royer told The Federalist.
“The evidence shows these children have never posed a threat to anyone, are not a threat and are not currently a threat. If those in power truly thought these children were a threat, they should not have waited 15 months to bring charges,” he added.
The school district president did not respond to The Federalist's request for comment.
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