CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) — The item wasn’t even on Monday night’s agenda, but Cumberland Valley School District board directors voted unanimously to cancel a planned speech by a star of the longtime hit NBC show “30 Rock.”

Maulik Pancholy played the character Jonathan on the show. In real life, he’s an author of two (soon three) fiction books, based on his experiences of being bullied as a child — and a speaker about some of the same topics.

So why was an assembly featuring Pancholy abruptly canceled by the school board in a meeting late Monday — by unanimous vote on an item that wasn’t even on the agenda?

“Mr. Pancholy was canceled because he’s gay,” said Trisha Comstock, the mother of two children in the district.

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“Each year, our principal at Mountain View Middle School works together with staff members to identify award-winning young adult authors to visit with students,” district spokesperson Tracy Panzer said in an email. “In the past, authors have given a presentation as part of a unique educational experience for students.”

Pancholy was this year’s pick. But at Monday night’s board meeting, one director, Bud Shaffner, made a motion to cancel the speech. “I know he’s a homosexual activist,” Shaffner said in part, explaining his objection, using the archaic term for “gay.”

Other board members expressed more narrow reservations about the assembly being during school hours.

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Comstock called Shaffner “homophobic” but said even the other objections made no sense, considering the district’s anti-bullying program, which has been the topic of other assemblies.

“Every assembly is during school hours,” Comstock said. “That’s the definition of an assembly: that it’s during school hours.”

Pancholy has spoken at other middle schools nationally, although coincidentally, his sister-in-law, Erin Corvaia, lives in the district. She said, sure he’s gay, among other traits.

“He’s Asian-American. His family Is indian. He also grew up gay,” said Corvaia, who said those facts make him relatable in a diverse district.

“We have an extremely high population of Asian-Americans,” said Corvaia, whose daughter, Flora Hicks, attends the middle school.

At the meeting, board members expressed concerned about what they called Pancholy’s political activism.

“He is an anti-bullying activist,” Comstock said. “There’s no political agenda. There’s no politics to it.”

“So this is no different in any way than other assemblies that have happened here, except for the fact that he’s gay,” Corvaia said.

“The hardest thing for me is my daughter right now, who’s in the school and was excited for her uncle to be here,” Corvaia continued. “And her friends were excited…. She is struggling, and I don’t want her to think this is the world that we live in.”

Struggling — but not moping. Hicks has launched a petition to convince the board to reverse its decision to cancel the speech, which was originally scheduled for May 22.

“He is proud of his lifestyle, and I don’t think that should be imposed upon our students,” Shaffner said during the meeting.

Comstock said that idea — that sexual orientation is a lifestyle choice, rather than something people are born into, such as race or ethnicity — is as outdated as the word Shaffner used to describe gay people.

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“The whole homophobia part of this is that it’s not a lifestyle. If you replace ‘lifestyle’ with ‘Black,’ it’s pretty simple: ‘He’s proud of being Black, and I don’t think that should be imposed upon our students,'” Comstock said, characterizing what she said is the flawed reasoning.

Aside from the surprise vote — with the public not able to speak on the matter despite two public comment periods earlier in the meeting — Comstock objected to the idea of the board getting involved in what she considers school-level details.

“The board’s responsibility is to hire, fire and budget,” she said. “For them to micromanage administrative-approved assemblies at the building level is kind of unheard of.”

With more than 10,000 students, Cumberland Valley is the 16th largest out of about 500 Pennsylvania school districts.

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