School board members around the country are asking President Joe Biden, the FBI and Secret Service to protect them from threats stemming from COVID-19 and Critical Race Theory debates. National School Boards Association president Viola Garcia and interim executive director and CEO Chip Slaven wrote a letter outlining examples of abuse directed at its members, according to Axios.
The letter went as far as to say that “classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”
A letter of this urgency is unusual, but given how politicians are pushing against mask and vaccine mandates, and embracing white supremacist ideology, it should not come as a big surprise. The recent California recall effort gathered so much steam (even though Gov. Newsom won) because of mask mandates. As Axios notes, fights have broken out at school board meetings because of opposition to wearing masks.
Here is an excerpt of the letter:
NSBA believes immediate assistance is required to protect our students, school board members, and educators who are susceptible to acts of violence affecting interstate commerce because of threats to their districts, families, and personal safety. As our school boards continue coronavirus recovery operations within their respective districts, they are also persevering against other challenges that could impede this progress in a number of communities. 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. 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 NSBA, which represents more than 90,000 elected officials who work in 14,000 public school systems, also wants for the U.S. Postal Service to help track threatening letters that go through the mail. It is also soliciting the help of the National Threat Assessment Center and other federal bodies to assess threat levels for school children, campuses and school board members.
It is a pity that educators have to seek protection from anti-vaxxers and folks making nonsensical, misinformed claims about Critical Race Theory, but that is where America is today.