Domestic Terrorists

Last week the House Judiciary Committee released its interim report concerning the involvement of the Department of Justice with the National School Boards Association and the labeling of concerned parents who attend school board meetings as "domestic terrorists".

As a school board member for close to sixteen years between 2007 and 2023 I have to say I never felt threatened by any parent expressing their concerns at a school board meeting - and certainly not by any "far-right", "ultra-MAGA" Republican. Of course, there were times, especially during my stint as board president in 2017, when I felt uncomfortable. It's never easy to tell people things they don't want to hear. When things go wrong at the schools you need to expect difficult questions. That year I faced many difficult questions from the public podium - union issues, mold due to faulty HVAC equipment, lead in the water in several schools, heating issues, air-conditioning issues, substance use concerns, personnel issues, etc. I always answered honestly and firmly and tried to project that I was on the same side as the public.

Indeed, the only time I ever felt threatened as a school board member was not by the general public, but by the local teachers' union. During contract negotiations, it was typical for hundreds of union members to come to a school board meeting and stand outside the meeting room, in the school hallway, lining both sides of the hallway so that board members had to literally squeeze through a narrow gauntlet between rows of scowling union members. That was physically intimidating. During and before my time on the board, other members had union protesters picket outside their homes. 

But beyond all of that, there is something bigger going on here. It was revealed very early on in the DOJ's targeting of parents that the White House collaborated with the National School Boards Association in drafting a letter from the NSBA to the DOJ asking to define protesting parents as domestic terrorists and use all the powers against them that the DOJ is permitted to use against domestic terrorists. 

There was never any threat to school board members from parents. The letter and the DOJ response were political - connected with the upcoming November 2021 governors' races in Virginia and New Jersey where parental rights in education had become an issue - and meant to intimidate PARENTS!

In the aftermath, the NSBA lost nearly half of its membership with 22 states withdrawing from the organization and many others publicly rebuking the letter. The New Jersey School Boards Association remains. And that is a topic for another post.