East Penn School Board member Carol Allen announced her resignation “effective immediately” from her position according to a message sent last Tuesday.

Allen has been at the center of board controversy the past year. After the student-led walkout on March 14 to protest and raise awareness about gun violence in schools, Allen put forth a proposal to regulate such student expression, garnering criticism from the community and fellow board members.

According to the April 23 meeting minutes, board members voiced concern and unease about introducing a policy that could potentially be “limiting students’ freedom of expression.” The proposal failed to pass.

This was not the first time Allen’s work on the school board has been scrutinized.

Allen worked in conjunction with the Lehigh Valley Tea Party this summer to highlight and denounce videos shown at Emmaus High School featuring the LGBTQ+ community. Speakers discussed issues of “parental rights,” making the case that students should not be shown content relating to LBGTQ+ people without parental consent.

This stirred up polarizing reactions from both sides of the issue.

EHS students spoke at board meetings to oppose the attacks on these videos while proponents of Allen’s stance pushed the school to look into the matter further. Links to the videos shown to students were eventually released publicly, but only after a great deal of debate and dispute among the community.

Allen has made a controversial impact during her time on the board.

The reason for her sudden resignation has not yet been made public.