Petition Launched Demanding Resignation Of Stanley From School Board

A petition has been launched on Change.org demanding the resignation of Board of Education member Pat Stanley over comments she made about board president Ed Potosnak.

The Board of Education member who recently called for the resignation of the board president is now the subject of an online petition seeking her resignation.

Township resident Erik Ransom on July 25 launched a petition on the Change.org site calling for the resignation of board member Pat Stanley.

Stanley recently called on board president Ed Potosnak to resign because of comments he made during the June 26 Franklin High School graduation regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage.

In a letter to Potosnak and other board members, Stanley claimed that Potosnak had “hijacked” the graduation ceremony by relating the decision to his own experience as a gay man.

Stanley’s action came under attack at the July 23 school board meeting, but she did not back down on her call for Potosnak’s resignation.

“Demand the resignation of homophobic board member Patricia Stanley,” reads the petition started by Ransom and which held more than 200 signatures on July 28. Ransom said he is hoping to get 500 signature before he presents the petition to the school board.

“My primary purpose in calling for Ms. Stanley’s resignation is due to her deplorable response to the public outcry,” Ransom wrote in an email. “She has been dismissive, unapologetic and wholly uncomprehending of the affront she has perpetrated.”

“The assumption behind her call for Mr. Potosnak’s resignation is that homosexuality is so shameful that it dare not speak its name in public,” he wrote. “She’s referred to the overly ‘intimate’ nature of statements that were indisputably about his family, not his practices in the bedroom. She claims Mr. Potosnak breached some universal, timeless code of decorum which, judging from her utter lack of support at the BOE meeting, is neither universal nor timeless. She played the martyr and accused the media of silencing her side of the argument. She even jabbed her fellow BOE members for following the protocol of a publicly elected Board and being transparent with the letter she sent calling for Mr. Potosnak’s resignation.

“Since Ms. Stanley doesn’t seem to understand why her views are bigoted and persists in defending her homophobia, I started the petition to raise awareness and to put pressure on the Franklin Board of Education to see to her resignation or removal,” he wrote.

Ransom said he has “no idea” if the petition will force Stanley to resign, “but I certainly hope so.”

“I have no personal vendetta against Ms. Stanley,” Ransom wrote. “I’ve never met her. But she has shown herself to be extremely closed-minded and the Board of Ed should be committed to opening the minds of future generations without bias or bigotry. If Ms. Stanley refuses to resign, as I expect she will, I hope the Board can and will explore other options for her removal. She has a long (nearly full) term ahead of her with plenty of opportunities to cause damage and distractions like this one.”

Stanley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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