A group representing 90,000 school-board members asked President Joe Biden this week to direct the FBI, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security to provide protection for members facing “threats” amid ongoing tensions over COVID-19 regulations and critical race theory in the classroom. The group also requested that the federal government investigate “threats of violence” and “acts of intimidation” as possible forms of “domestic terrorism.”
In a letter to President Biden dated Wednesday, the National School Boards Association requested the assistance of federal law enforcement and other authorities “to deal with the growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation.”
“As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” the NSBA letter stated.
The group claimed school board meetings have been “disrupted” in California, Florida, Georgia and a number of other states due to “local directives for mask coverings to protect students and educators from COVID-19.”
They also cited a number of examples of violence, harassment and intimidations, including the arrest of one Illinois individual who was detained for aggravated battery and disorderly conduct during a school board meeting, and an incident in which an individual “yelled a Nazi salute in protest” of masking requirements.
“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,” the group claimed. “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.”
“Now, we ask that the federal government investigate, intercept, and prevent the current threats and acts of violence against our public school officials through existing statutes, executive authority, interagency and intergovernmental task forces, and other extraordinary measures to ensure the safety of our children and educators, to protect interstate commerce, and to preserve public school infrastructure and campuses,” it continued.
The letter was signed by the association’s president, Viola M. Garcia, and interim Executive Director and CEO Chip Slaven.
Journalist Christopher Rufo has written a number of reports contradicting the group’s claim that critical race theory is not being taught in schools, including one showing 30 public school districts in 15 states are teaching the book “Not My Idea,” which says that “whiteness” causes white people to make deals with the devil for “stolen land, stolen riches, and special favors.”
The book says white people get to “mess endlessly with the lives of your friends, neighbors, loved ones, and all fellow humans of color for the purpose of profit.”
According to another report by the City Journal, third graders at an elementary school in California were forced to rank themselves according to their “power and privilege” as it related to their ethnicities.
