A set of newly publicized emails showed how the National School Boards Association (NSBA) was in fact in talks with Biden administration officials as they crafted a letter seeking federal protection against anti-critical race theory parents, which the school boards association labeled a source of "domestic terrorism." The emails were obtained by advocacy group Parents Defending Education following a Freedom of Information Act.
According to the Christian Post, the emails proved just how NSBA leadership had "been engaged with the White House for several weeks" before the release of the letter on September 29, during which it made headlines for calling anti-crt parents "domestic terrorists." The letter called upon the U.S. Department of Justice to mobilize the FBI among other law enforcement agencies to address alleged "threats and acts of violence against public schoolchildren, public school board members, and other public school district officials and educators."
The letter immediately faced harsh criticism for calling the aforementioned "threats and acts of violence" as actions of "domestic terrorism." The NSBA through the letter went on to lament how school board meetings were peppered with disruption stemming from "local directives for mask coverings to protect students and educators from COVID-19," as well as "chaos" caused by "anti-mask proponents" and how "angry mobs" confronted school board members, therefore causing them to "end meetings abruptly."
School boards in different states, which are members of the NSBA, took issue with the fact that they were never consulted in the writing of the letter and that they themselves do not believe in what was written in it.
Among the publicized emails was one dated October 2, in which NSBA President Viola Garcia told members of the group's board of directors that "NSBA has been engaged with the White House and the Department of Education on these and other issues related to the pandemic for several weeks now."
Another email dated September 29, an email addressed to members of the NSBA Board of Directors from Interim Executive Director Chip Slaven remarked that in the discussion in the last several weeks, White House staff had "requested additional information on some of the specific threats."
Just five days after the NSBA letter was received by the White House, the Department of Justice published a memorandum mobilizing several agencies to "facilitate the discussion of strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers and staff." In the midst of it all was U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who ordered a committee to be established to address the "domestic terrorists" that the NSBA claimed to be dealing with.
This week, a contentious hearing on Capitol Hill saw Garland face tough questions over the DOJ memorandum, CBN News reported. Rep. Steve Chabot of Ohio remarked, "Not in a million years did we think we'd see the Justice Department treat American parents as domestic terrorists."
Rep. Burgess Owens demanded of Attorney General Garland, "Is there a legal precedent for the Department of Justice to investigate peaceful protest or parental involvement at public school meetings?" The Attorney General replied, "We would never do that, we are only concerned about violence, threats of violence."
