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A group representing members of school boards across the country on Thursday asked President Joe Biden for federal help to investigate and stop threats against policies, including mask warrants, likening vitriol to a form of domestic terrorism.
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 an increasing number of people to resign or not to stand again.
“Whatever you think of masks, it shouldn’t reach that level of rhetoric,” NSBA interim executive director Chip Slaven told The Associated Press by phone.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the responsibility for protecting school boards lies largely with local law enforcement, but “We continue to explore if more can be done across the government. “
“Obviously, these threats to school board members are horrific. They do 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.” the association wrote.
The association represents more than 90,000 school board members in 14,000 public school districts.
The letter documents more than 20 cases of 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 are coming after you” said a letter sent to a member of the Ohio school board, 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 were planning to consider a temporary COVID mask warrant. -19.
In a U.S. Senate committee hearing Thursday, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona denounced the 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 he was “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.
The father of an Arizona elementary school student was arrested after he and two other men brought zip ties to campus, threatening to make a “Citizen arrest” on the school principal during a COVID-19 quarantine. In California, a parent broke into her daughter’s elementary school and punched a teacher in the face because of the mask rule.
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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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