Written by Nathaniel Manor<\/p>\n
Remember the National School Board Association letter smearing parents who opposed vaccine mandates and CRT in schools as \u201cdomestic terrorists\u201d? Remember how the FBI was supposed to put parents on a watchlist thanks to this letter? Well, as it turns out, not only did the President and CEO send the letter without the board\u2019s permission, but they also sent the letter (and a long exchange of emails) directly to the President of the United States of America!<\/p>\n
Parents Defending Education obtained the emails and found that the White House knew about the letter before the NBSA released it. The White House also asked for instances of threats made against school board members, which led to Attorney General Merrick Garland\u2019s task force of FBI agents to prosecute such \u201ccrimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Viola Garcia and Chip Slaven, the President and CEO respectively, detailed in their letter the \u201cconcerning threats to public schools and school board members\u2026in talks over the last several weeks with White House staff (the administration had) requested additional information on some of the specific threats.\u201d However, neither of them responded to their lack of transparency towards their fellow board members.<\/p>\n
Naturally, their underlings had something to say, \u201cMany of us have been put in a position now of explaining or defending this action of our association as we are asked by members of our community if we consider them domestic terrorists for showing up to our meetings and expressing their opinions,\u201d wrote John W. Halkias in response.<\/p>\n
But behind all the madness lies a simple question: where are the threats? Seriously, which parents are threatening the lives and safety of school board members? The answer is that there are no threats because that is not what these parents want. Instead, they ask schools not to force children into getting the vaccine for a variety of reasons (health concerns, religious exemptions, skepticism), as well as not shaming children for their skin color.<\/p>\n
That seems reasonable, but when parents bring up recall elections for board members, the White House and NSBA hear \u201cdomestic terrorism\u201d and \u201chate crimes.\u201d If our administration and educators can\u2019t understand the difference between speech and violence, they have no place making decisions for us and certainly don\u2019t deserve their office.<\/p>\n