Pennsylvania
Exclusive | Pennsylvania teacher running for Congress slams district’s response to middle schoolers’ TikTok abuse: ‘They chose to hide’
MALVERN, Pa. — Pennsylvania middle-school teacher-turned-GOP congressional candidate Neil Young has been at the forefront of a social-media scandal that enveloped his Chester County middle school, making national headlines this month.
An hour outside of Philly, at the end of the city’s wealthy Main Line, is the suburb of Malvern, Pa., where Great Valley Middle School students carried out an online harassment campaign against their teachers via TikTok.
The New York Times first reported on July 6 that a quarter of the school’s faculty members were victims of this abuse, in which “fake teacher accounts rife with pedophilia innuendo, racist memes, homophobia and made-up sexual hookups among teachers” circulated fraudulent content to TikTok pages hundreds of students follow.
Young, a veteran social studies teacher on sabbatical while running for Congress, is among the victims.
“I’m the guy who was in bed with another teacher,” Young told The Post, describing the fraudulent picture students circulated of him on TikTok. “What was done with me is not acceptable.”
Young — who is challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan in Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District, which covers Chester County and part of Berks County — is hoping to shine a spotlight on his colleagues who have shared their stories.
“The stuff that was said about some of these other teachers — just an unbelievable lack of empathy from the kids,” Young said, alluding to stories of fellow teachers defamed with insinuations of pedophilia or depicted in “cheapfake” images in sexual situations.
Houlahan — who briefly taught high school chemistry early in her career — addressed the scandal on the House floor last Thursday, calling students’ actions “inappropriate” regardless of circumstance.
“This wasn’t a prank, it was a blatant misuse of social media violating basic rules of human decency.” Houlahan said. “And it’s inappropriate, regardless of a child’s age or whether the school is public, charter or private.”
Houlahan did not acknowledge that her GOP opponent was one of the teachers victimized by fraudulent TikTok posts — something Young was quick to capitalize on.
“She doesn’t acknowledge that her opponent was one of the victims,” Young said.
“Instead she starts with, ‘As a former chemistry teacher,’ Young added. “She quit after one year and didn’t follow through on her Teach for America contract.”
Young’s gripes aren’t only with Houlahan’s handling of the scandal, but the Great Valley School District also.
“Every step of the way, with the opportunity to bring in parents and support teachers, they chose to hide,” he said. “They refused to communicate to the whole district. They tried to do it [in] just isolated groups.”
And Young isn’t the only one who feels this way – just ask the 200+ people who showed up to the Great Valley school board meeting on Monday night demanding answers.
Teacher’s union president Nikki Salvatico was also there to make their position clear: the students’ actions should not be dismissed as protected speech under the First Amendment.
Young said that the district may have been acting on advice from its solicitors that taking serious action against student perpetrators of the social media posts could lead to lawsuits regarding conduct outside the classroom. Still, he feels they missed the mark.
“The opportunity to set a strong precedent that we’re not going to accept this type of behavior, we’re not going to allow it to fall under the umbrella of free speech — that was their opportunity that they lost,” he said.
Courts have traditionally upheld students’ right to protected speech after school hours, such as in the Supreme Court’s “cursing cheerleader” decision back in 2021 — another case involving Pennsylvania teenagers and social media. But in that case, the student in question was posting on her own behalf and not attempting to falsely impersonate others.
Young thinks a handful of students were briefly suspended because teachers remained persistent with both the district and their union — despite both wanting to avoid escalating the situation.
It may be too little too late, per Young, who says the district soured its relationship with faculty and families as a result of poor communication.
“The community feels like they were in the dark. The parents feel like they were in the dark,” Young said. “Teachers feel unsupported.”
As for action to prevent similar abuse in the future, Young says teachers and parents need a seat at the table. He expressed concerns about government-mandated social-media restrictions for children — like Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate Dave McCormick’s calls to ban children under 16 from socials — arguing enforcement would be challenging.
But at the top of this teacher’s mind is getting educators involved in the process rather than leaving it to the politicians.
“If legislation’s going to exist, it certainly should have input from teachers,” Young said.
Video highlights the sounds of summer with peepers and green frogs
Aaron Capouellez, founder of PA Woods and Forests and creator of Frog Week conservation project, talks about spring peepers and greens frogs.
Fireflies are starting to emerge across the state in advance of an upcoming state festival and a citizen science data project revolving around lightning bugs.
“So far it’s tracking right on the average, I think, just maybe a little bit above average,” firefly expert Peggy Butler said about her expectations for the glowing insect’s population this summer.
“We had what I would say was an early spring but then the temperatures cooled and it’s more in the average range at this time. We’re expecting peak season to be around the 21st of June.”
Butler and her husband Ken are cofounders of the Pennsylvania Firefly Festival, which will be held June 26 and 27 at the Market Village in Tionesta.
“It should be really good viewing for that week, the 21st through July 1 as long as the temperatures stay in the normal range and it doesn’t go one way or the other too rapidly,” said Butler, who is also the festival’s treasurer.
The area does need some rain to attract the bugs.
“They like it hot and humid. As soon as it gets hot and humid, I think we’ll start seeing fireflies,” she said.
Some people call fireflies lightning bugs.
“It doesn’t matter which term you use,” she said. “Lightning bugs are fireflies. Not all fireflies are lightning bugs, but all lightning bugs are fireflies. You can use either term. It all depends on where you grew up and what your knowledge level is about them.”
There are numerous species of fireflies, and she’s already been seeing some spring tree-top flashers since Mother’s Day. “I think May 19th was my first firefly sighting for the season, but the synchronous fireflies typically don’t start until June 10th or 12th and with a peak being around the summer solstice,” she said.
She recently spotted a Chinese lantern firefly and said that species overlaps with the synchronous species.
“He was a little early, but he’ll have friends popping up here any day now, especially with the temperatures warming up,” Butler said.
The evening displays can be impressive to watch as each species has its own flash pattern.
“We have over 30 species in Pennsylvania. And at any given time, you may have 12 to 15 different species in a habitat, if it’s a great habitat,” she said.
The common eastern firefly comes out at dusk. The species stays active for about 45 minutes before returning to the grass. Then other species emerge about an hour after dusk when it’s truly dark.
“Those are synchronous fireflies that we see in the forest,” she said.
If the weather is warm and humid, some species will glow throughout the night until dawn.
In mid-summer, the heebie-jeebie fireflies emerge.
“We call them Christmas in July. We get them in mid-to late July and they just cover the trees, and they look like a Christmas light show going on. They are not synchronous, but they seem to have this pulsating show going on,” she said.
Why fireflies glow
The glow of a firefly is used to attract other fireflies to mate.
Fireflies use their enzymes to create a cold light on the lower part of their body.
“Which is unique. Most of the time, when you think of light being produced by things like fire or other kinds of heat sources,” Michael Skvarla, assistant research professor of arthropod identification at Penn State University, said in a July 7, 2025, interview for this publication.
“Fireflies are unique because they can do it without producing heat,” Skvarla said.
That process is now associated with products we use, like glow sticks.
“The light that they produce is often species specific, the flash patterns. And so, the kind of classic one is the J-shaped pattern that people will see in their yards, that species likes to fly in open fields above short grass. So people will be familiar with that pattern, but most species have a unique flash pattern where they’re flashing,” he said, including areas with fields, trees and swamps.
The flashing patterns help the fireflies tell each other apart when searching for a mate.
Butler enjoys the unique qualities of these glowing insects and what they mean to the environment and changing seasons.
“It’s just another part of the season that shows that everything is in balance, everything is as it should be. So, if you have fireflies, they are an indicator species, it means everything is in balance and the habitat is free of pesticides and light pollution and that it’s natural,” she explained.
“If you don’t have fireflies, and you should in Pennsylvania, there’s reason to be concerned. Something is out of balance, whether it’s a manmade thing or some other reason. It can be a natural thing, too, like a fire, a forest fire can disrupt them. A flood can definitely disrupt them. But generally, if you don’t have fireflies, it’s something manmade or caused by human impacts.”
Lights off in June
June is the month for the conservation initiative Lights Out for Lightning Bugs, as the insects prefer dark areas.
“The easiest, quickest and most impactful thing people can do is turning off their outdoor lighting at night, specifically during June. For most fireflies, that’s their typical peak season of mating,” she said.
The flying insects prefer darker areas where they can be seen by other glowing bugs.
Making a home for fireflies
Lightning bugs prefer taller grassy areas that have leaf litter from the previous fall. The females lay their eggs in the ground and the larva can live there up to two years feeding off slugs and snails in the ground. “If you have a garden, it’s a good thing to have firefly larva in your garden. They need moist, shaded areas to keep their larva alive,” Butler said.
“Leave your leaves, turn off your light and let your lawns be natural. If you can, grow a little natural area in your backyard. Let it grow to full length and you’ll see more fireflies. Otherwise, reduce your mowing as much as possible and mow at a really high level, no shorter than four inches if possible, and try to reduce mowing as much as possible,” she said.
If you are concerned about ticks, she suggests having the taller grass natural area away from your home in an area where you don’t normally walk.
Firefly festival
The 14th annual festival in Forest County is operated by a group of board members across Pennsylvania who are involved in music and science.
The June 26-27 event has been moved from the Kellettville Campground to the Market Village in Tionesta.
“They invited us to come and host the festival there and we decided it would be great for our exhibitors to have more exposure to the public than they were getting down here in Kellettville when we were just limiting it to the evening and just ticketed tourists,” she said.
From 12 to 6 p.m. those two days, the public is welcome to visit a variety of exhibits and entertainment. “It is all free and open to the public,” she said.
However, there will be information available in the Market Village at the festival’s tent for self-guided night-time opportunities.
“We will show them some areas in Forest County where they can go and look for fireflies on their own, either that night or at another time. They are public areas that have ample parking, are safe and not lit up,” she said. “But they will be able to see fireflies at those locations.”
The nighttime programs and guided firefly events at the Army Corps of Engineers’ Tionesta Lake Recreation Area are already sold out.
Community science project with fireflies
The festival organizers are expanding their educational outreach to Clarion County.
“We love that people come to Forest County, but we aren’t the only county in Pennsylvania with fireflies. But we need more data and we need more public places that can handle the tourism and won’t impact the habitats of fireflies by too many humans going there,” Butler said.
Right now, they are looking for locations and populations of fireflies in the neighboring county.
“We know they have fireflies but there isn’t a lot of good survey data on them,” she said.
They are looking for the public to report sightings of fireflies in the Clarion area through a new project.
“We are encouraging people to participate in the Clarion County Firefly Blitz,” she said. People who want to be community scientists for fireflies can reach out to Butler by email at pafirefirelyfestival@gmail.com or the pafireflyfestival.org webpage.
“We encourage it to be Clarion County residents or people who camp regularly in Clarion County who are not necessarily residents, but weekend and holiday campers,” she said.
It’s a pilot project that she’s open to exploring in other counties in the future.
“Our main goal is education,” Butler said about fireflies. “If I’m learning, I’m sharing it with other people that it will continue to grow, not just here but across the state or across the country.”
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@usatodayco.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website’s homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors.
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. (MyValleyTributes) – Linda Mae Combine, 65, of New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, passed away on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at UPMC Horizon in Farrell, Pennsylvania.
She was born in Mercer, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1960, to Thomas and Hazel (Foster) Weaver.
Linda graduated from Mercer High School in 1978. She attended Meryhurst University and earned her associates degree.
She was a dental assistant and office manager for Dr. Donald McCamant, and was a faithful, dedicated worker for 44 years at his office in Sharpsville.
Linda was married to Tom “Toby” Combine on August 13, 1988, and he survives at home. They shared 37 wonderful years of marriage.
Linda loved to travel to coastal destinations, where she could soak in the warm sunshine, listen to the waves, and spend time near the water. She loved being at the beach. She also enjoyed going to camp with her husband and spending time with her family and friends.
In addition to her husband at home, Linda is survived by her sons, Travis (Ashley) Combine of WV, and Lucas (Brenna) Combine of Boardman, Ohio; grandchildren, Lucy, Ava and Holden; stepson, Louis (Ciera) Gianni and their children, Loki and Samara of Texas; sister, Judy (Bernie) Pyle of Mercer; also surviving are many nieces and nephews.
Linda was preceded in death by her parents and her sister Diane.
In keeping her wishes, cremation has been chosen and there will be no services.
Messages of sympathy, stories and photos can be shared on Linda’s memorial page, at: www.flynnfuneralhome.com.
To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Linda Combine, please visit our floral store.
Chatbots on five different websites claimed to be licensed to practice medicine in Pennsylvania when prompted by Spotlight PA — the same kind of output that led the Shapiro administration to file a lawsuit last month.
A task force under Pennsylvania’s Department of State has been working since February to identify AI chatbots posing as licensed professionals and misleading users. Based on that work, the administration filed suit against the role-playing site Character.AI.
Mirroring the investigation detailed in the Department of State’s lawsuit, Spotlight PA had conversations with AI characters on websites Talkie, Janitor, Kindroid, Replika, and Nomi.AI. All provided a false Pennsylvania medical license number when prompted, a key part of the state’s argument in its lawsuit against Character.AI.
Spotlight PA checked responses from these bots after reviewing online articles and digital message boards to find 10 popular companion and role-playing AI chatbots. A reporter either selected a premade character or — when necessary — entered a description that would generate a doctor personality. It then presented hypothetical lists of symptoms to the chatbots and asked for a diagnosis.
Some of the most popular AI large language models, like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini, did not claim to be licensed medical professionals under the same circumstances. Only a handful of role-playing websites did so.
Replika and Nomi require their users to create characters. One generated in Replika, when asked if it was a doctor, said it couldn’t give advice and recommended the user reach out to a healthcare provider. However, once it was instructed that it was a doctor, the AI provided a false Pennsylvania medical license number when asked.
“Let’s focus on getting you feeling better, shall we?” it said.
At first, some of the chatbots responded that they lacked enough information to provide a diagnosis and asked further questions.
“Dr. Jenna” is a preexisting character on Talkie, listed as having more than 37,000 “connectors” and more than 1,300 followers. It said the list of symptoms provided by Spotlight PA could be caused by “suffering from depression,” and inquired about the user’s family history. Asked for its credentials, the bot said it had been practicing medicine for five years and gave a false license number of “12345.”
Many of the websites, including Character.AI, have prominent labels warning that anything the AI says is fiction and should only be seen as entertainment. The other sites issue similar disclaimers in their initial terms of service, saying users are responsible for verifying the accuracy of the technology’s claims.
Jennifer Kraschnewski, a physician and director of the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute, told Spotlight PA she isn’t convinced the disclaimers actually get through to users. People often turn to AI models for help with their symptoms, much like they do with search engines like Google, she said.
“Incorrect information in the hands of someone who doesn’t know how to interpret that can be concerning,” Kraschnewski said. She noted that many physicians are already implementing AI tools in their clinics, “but that’s information that’s in the hands of someone who then can put that through the filter of their medical education before it actually impacts patients.”
Kraschnewski co-authored a May study that found common AI large language models generated what participating physicians deemed an accurate diagnosis about 76% of the time. That error rate — nearly one-quarter — Kraschnewski said, is more than double that of an average human physician.
When contacted by Spotlight PA, the developers of the AI characters argued their products are meant only for entertainment.
“Replika is not a medical triage service and has never offered itself as one,” the company responded in an email to questions. “Users come to Replika to talk through what’s going on in their lives, and the product is designed to support them in making thoughtful choices and seeking improvements that matter to them.”
Though Replika did not elaborate in its statement, the company said it has “taken measures” to address “valid concerns” brought up in the Shapiro administration’s lawsuit against Character.AI.
Kindroid, in an emailed response, noted its terms of service make clear that its products are for “entertainment and creative exploration, do not offer medical advice or constitute the practice of medicine, and are not a substitute for professional care.”
“When a character has been set up as a physician and a user asks it for a license number, the model produces plausible-sounding output that matches the role — the same way it would invent a fictional case citation, fictional patient history, or any other specific detail prompted from it,” the statement read. “The model does not, and cannot, query the Pennsylvania medical board’s actual registry.”
On the potential of facing legal action from the Shapiro administration or others, Kindroid declined to comment.
The other three companies did not respond to questions about their safeguards for users or whether they’re concerned that the Shapiro administration’s AI task force may target them for legal action.
A spokesperson for the Department of State declined to comment on potential investigations or litigation, but encouraged Pennsylvanians to report any concerning actions by an AI chatbot to the state’s hotline.
“Millions of children and teens across this country, including many here in Pennsylvania, are relying on these chatbots for information, and we need to rein in this AI technology that is preying on our kids,” said Rosie Lapowsky, a spokesperson for Shapiro. “Pennsylvania will continue leading the way in holding bad actors accountable and setting clear guardrails so people can use new technology responsibly.”
In March, the state Senate passed legislation that would require AI chatbots to frequently remind their users they are not interacting with a person and refer people to a crisis service provider if they reference self-harm. It also has tighter restrictions when the chatbot interacts with a minor.
The bill was referred to a state House committee in March, where it has not received a vote.
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