On Monday, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that federal officials, including authorities in the FBI, would soon meet with leaders in school districts across the country to address “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against educators and school board members.
A number of violent incidents toward school personnel have been documented over the past several weeks, mostly perpetrated by parents with conservative viewpoints who oppose measures like mask mandates and the purported teaching of critical race theory in classrooms. These occurrences have become so widespread that they were even parodied in a sketch on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” this past weekend.
“Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values,” Garland said in a memo detailing his order. “Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety.”
Garland added that the Department of Justice would be announcing additional measures in the near future to “address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel.”
Garland’s order comes after the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent a letter last week to President Joe Biden requesting help addressing violence against school officials. Describing the situation as an “immediate threat,” the organization noted that some parents are acting out over perceived changes that aren’t even happening.
“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 NSBA letter read.
“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,” the letter continued.
As the threats are becoming more prevalent, the organization explained, the “NSBA respectfully asks that a joint collaboration among federal law enforcement agencies, state and local law enforcement, and with public school officials be undertaken to focus on these threats.”
These threats have occurred in a number of places across the U.S. In Austin, Texas, for example, a parent upset with masking rules being implemented in his child’s school physically assaulted a teacher that attempted to have his child adhere to the policy. Late last month, a school board meeting in Carver County, Minnesota also turned violent when unmasked parents started a fight after a member of the community spoke favorably of the school district’s decision to keep masking rules in place.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 231 new monthly donors in the next 2 days.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy