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On Thursday, a group representing members of school boards across the country called on President Joe Biden for federal help to investigate and end threats against politicians, including mask warrants, likening vitriol to a form of terrorism domesticated.
The National School Boards Association’s request demonstrates the level of instability that engulfed local education meetings across the country during the pandemic, with board members regularly confronted and threatened by angry protesters.
School board members are largely unpaid volunteers, parents and former educators who show up to shape school policy, choose a superintendent, and revise the budget, but they were spooked at how their work suddenly became a battleground of cultural warfare. The climate has led a growing number to resign or decide not to stand for re-election.
“Whatever you think of the masks, it shouldn’t get to that level of rhetoric,” NSBA interim executive director Chip Slaven told The Associated Press by phone.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said much of the responsibility for protecting school boards rests with local law enforcement, but “we are continuing to explore if more can be done in the future. entire administration “.
“Obviously, these threats to school board members are horrific. They are doing their job, ”she said during a press briefing.
The association called on the federal government to get involved in investigating cases where threats or violence could be treated as violations of federal laws protecting civil rights. He also called on the Department of Justice, the FBI, Homeland Security and the Secret Service to help monitor threat levels and assess risks to students, educators, board members and school buildings.
“As these malicious acts, violence and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could amount to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” wrote the association.
The association represents more than 90,000 school board members in 14,000 public school districts.
The letter documents more than 20 instances threats, harassment, disruption and intimidation in California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Ohio and other states. He cites the September arrest of an Illinois man for aggravated assault and battery and disorderly conduct for allegedly hitting a school official during a meeting. In Michigan, a meeting was disrupted when a man gave a Nazi salute to protest the masking.
“We’re following you,” a letter mailed to an Ohio school board member said, according to the group. “You make them wear a mask – for no reason in this world other than control. And for that, you will pay dearly.
He called the member a “dirty traitor”.
Last week, a crowd of up to 200 protesters who knocked on doors and yelled at police closed a school board meeting in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where members planned to consider a temporary COVID-19 mask warrant.
In a US Senate committee hearing Thursday, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona denounced hostility against school board members and praised their “unwavering support” to reopen schools safely . He said the lack of civility in some meetings is disappointing and in some places it has been “very dangerous”.
He made the comments in response to questions from Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., A former school board member who said contentious meetings were part of civic engagement.
The threats went beyond board meetings.
Father of elementary school student in Arizona arrested after he and two other men brought neckties to campus, threatening to “citizen arrest” the school principal for a COVID-19 quarantine. In California, a parent broke into her daughter’s elementary school and hit a teacher in the face on the mask ruler.
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Associated Press editors Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Aamer Madhani in Washington and Collin Binkley in Boston contributed to this report.
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