M4L School Board Candidate Is A Big Fat Liar

A Moms for Liberty backed school board candidate for Downington Area School Board in Pennsylvania turns out to have a George Santos-sized fabulist streak.

Maddie Hanna of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on this story, which is now out from behind a paywall, and as always, she did a hell of a job. I'm just going to whet your appetite--go read the whole thing.

This guy

Back in 2021 the district started getting formal-sounding challenges to books in its library from the Society of College Medicine Violations Department. Except there's no such society, and so there's no such department. 

It has come to our attention that a ‘Red Flagged’ book has appeared on your DEI Reading List. We recommend this being removed immediately, and sensitivity counseling/training administered to whomever recommended/allowed this book to a school population.

The e-mails even referenced things like "tier-1" and "tier-2" violations. 

But this is all made-up baloney from Christopher Bressi, who has (well, had, because Hanna's reporting seems to have prompted some erasures) a whole web of interlocking made-up BS websites. This goes with a host of jobs that he may or may not have actually had in IT and consulting and higher ed. And he also tried to get himself some juice in right wing reading restriction circles. As Hanna reports:

In a “No Left Turn in Education” group, Bressi — using the name Christopher Bre — shared an email from the Society for College Medicine notifying Downingtown of “Red Flag” violations, and referred to “pressure from the Society of College Medicine” that he suggested was having an impact.

But district administrators had already disregarded the messages. “There is no Society of College Medicine, let alone a violations department,” Justin Brown, Downingtown’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion, wrote in an email to school board members. “This is simply someone trying to troll the district.”

This guy is a hoot. Hanna also found him, through Bressi LLC, operating a Space Tourism website. On LinkedIn she found his group “Global Education Executives (No Politics in School) Global Academic Network!”

Bressi referred to that LinkedIn group while addressing the Downingtown board in March 2022, opposing a contract with the American School Counselor Association that he said would promote “divisive ideologies.”

Bressi informed the board that “the largest educational management group on LinkedIn” had “recommended collectively that K-12 schools adopt a no-politics-in-the-classroom pledge” — advising the district to “follow suit.”

You can read his website here (for now) and check out an interview he did as a candidate on a conservative website (don't miss the comments) or this site where you can...take a course about him? He's got a long list of alleged academic credentials. What appears to be his LinkedIn page lists his current job as Executive Director of Higher Education - Global ACI. Hanna tracked that to Aspect Consulting, an IT consulting group. A former colleague says he's inflating a bit and simply functions as a go-between to connect educational institutions with software consultants.

This guy is running for school board in Downington. Elections are next Tuesday; may many people get a chance to see what a shady piece of work he is before then. Read the whole story, and if you're in Downington, spread it.  And if you’re somewhere with Moms for Liberty endorsing school board candidates, take it as a lesson.

[Update: He lost]