A group of school boards sent a letter to President Joe Biden Thursday, demanding that the White House deploy “federal law enforcement and other assistance” to school board meetings, to help address the “growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation” as parents push back against districts teaching Critical Race Theory, mandate face masks for K-12 students and even discuss COVID-19 vaccination mandates.
According to NPR, the group, the National School Boards Association (NSBA), claims that school board meetings now require the presence of “Justice, Education and Homeland Security departments as well as the FBI,” citing a number of incidents, including one in Loudoun County, Virginia, where school board meetings have devolved into arguments requiring law enforcement involvement.
“These heinous actions,” the NSBA said, “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”
Although they specifically reference contentious meetings — and not Critical Race Theory or mask mandates specifically — the letter appears to lump more peaceful protests into the “could be the equivalent…of domestic terrorism” category.
“NSBA believes immediate assistance is required to protect our students, school board members, and educators who are susceptible to acts of violence affecting interstate commerce because of threats to their districts, families, and personal safety,” the group wrote.
“As our school boards continue coronavirus recovery operations within their respective districts, they are also persevering against other challenges that could impede this progress in a number of communities. Coupled with attacks against school board members and educators for approving policies for masks to protect the health and safety of students and school employees, many public school officials are also facing physical threats because of propaganda purporting the false inclusion of critical race theory within classroom instruction and curricula.”
“This propaganda continues despite the fact that critical race theory is not taught in public schools and remains a complex law school and graduate school subject well beyond the scope of a K-12 class,” the NSBA insisted.
Later in the letter, the group implies that the attacks are coordinated and demands a Justice Department-wide investigation.
“As such, NSBA requests a joint expedited review by the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education, and Homeland Security, along with the appropriate training, coordination, investigations, and enforcement mechanisms from the FBI, including any technical assistance necessary from, and state and local coordination with, its National Security Branch and Counterterrorism Division, as well as any other federal agency with relevant jurisdictional authority and oversight,” the group said.
The Loudoun County incident, though, involved an arrest after the meeting, which involved a loud but largely peaceful demonstration, was declared an “unlawful assembly” by the board itself, as The Daily Wire reported.
“The Loudoun County School Board ended the public comment section of its June 22 meeting on a unanimous vote after Chair Brenda L. Sheridan repeatedly warned the attendees in the Board Room that loud public demonstrations violated the decorum of the meeting,” The Daily Wire noted.